John 12:16
These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him.

Hindsight really is 20/20.  We don’t always see clearly until we’re looking back from a different perspective.  The disciples who followed Jesus were living in the moment.  They knew the Scriptures.  They had Jesus as their teacher.  But they didn’t connect all the dots in the midst of what was happening.  They didn’t fully understand exactly how Jesus fulfilled all that was written of Him.  Perhaps they were swept up in the excitement of the moment and limited, for a time, by their own perception.

But later, looking back, after Jesus had risen from the grave and ascended up to heaven, they could more fully understand the meaning behind some of the things Jesus had said and done that they didn’t grasp before.  They had the Holy Spirit within to lead them into all truth.  They had their minds open to the Scriptures and were given understanding to find those meanings they had missed in the moment.

We aren’t always going to see things for what they are at the time that we experience them.  We aren’t always going to understand what God is doing or what something means or how it connects to His overall plan when we’re looking at it from our own perspective.  But perhaps we can look back later with fuller understanding, with a more biblical perspective, with some knowledge that God has revealed to us, and then we’ll be able to see something for what it truly was.  We’ll see how God was involved and perhaps how it lined up with His bigger purpose.

Our lives are a learning process.  We’re not going to understand everything right away.  We don’t grasp every truth of God’s Word as soon as we are saved, but it’s a journey of discovery where we put the pieces together little by little.  And then when we look back after a time, we can see a fuller picture.  May we be willing to continue to learn about Jesus and to know Him and His Word a little better day by day.