Time is God’s “unbounded now” (C.S. Lewis). He sees and knows all at once, while we see and know one moment at a time. We pray, then, with a limited and finite understanding of very few things. But God to Whom we pray has an unlimited and infinite understanding of all things. He is both all-knowing and all-wise.

There are times when I receive an email or a text asking for specific prayer for later in the day or the following day. Because I reply that I will, I often take that moment right then and there to pray, so that I won’t forget to later.

But there are times I do forget. Later I come across that email or text. What do I do? The request involving a specific date and time has passed. I may feel regret that now there’s nothing I can do. Or is there? Is there still time to pray?

If I am unaware of the answer to that prayer, then I am learning that it’s never too late to pray. It’s never too late, because time is not linear to God, as it is to us. A moment passed is a moment present to God. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever and we could say yesterday, today, and forever are the same to God. Could God, then, hear my prayer today at 1:45pm to answer a prayer made yesterday at 11:30am?

God “works all things together” for our good (Romans 8:28), according to “the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11). His will, then, precedes the beginning and ending of all things. Because He sees at once all things at all times in all places, He can work through our prayers today that His will would be done yesterday, today, or tomorrow. For with Him “one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2 Peter 3:8)

No, we cannot go back in time and change what has happened. But let us not for a second believe that prayer is subject to Master Time. Rather, our praying and our prayers are taken up by God who “inhabits eternity” (Isaiah 57:15). He is over and outside of time. With Him time is a canvas on which He is painting His great masterpiece. And He is The Grand Artist. He makes no mistake, but from beginning to ending each stroke is perfect in depth and beauty, in detail and purpose.

One stroke of the brush is with a future stroke in mind. And, yet, another stroke is with the last stroke in mind. Past and future working, dancing, together, step in step and hand in hand. No, it’s never too late to pray. How could we know it was? We are and are in the Artist’s creation.