For at least a century some sociologists have expounded on generational theory. The basic concept is that events in history have deep impacts on those who live through those events thereby creating similarities among those who are the in the same age cohort and differences between various groups of people based on their age. This theory was significantly developed by William Strauss and Neil Howe in their book, “Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069.” The book, published in 1991, expounded a theory that there is a cycle of generations that recurs. The book doesn’t quite claim the ability to predict the future based on the theory, but it does make some generalized observations about the character of different groups of people that have been used by others in attempts to predict the future.

I’ve used generational theory to explain some of the differences between people my age and those of other age groups. It can be helpful to see how we are shaped by large historic events. I draw the line, however, when it comes to prediction. While it can be useful to reflect on how my grandparents were different from my parents and how we are different from our children, I don’t presume to have any insight on how the world will unfold for our grandchildren.

The bottom line for me is that I do not believe that the future can be known. There are some predictions that come true, but others do not.

Having said that, here is a bit of generational trivia. A large number of people of a certain age, by which I mean those who are my age and older, attended public schools when Shakespeare’s plays were written into the general curricula. Not only did I read Romeo and Juliet in the 9th grade, a whole lot of others read the same play at a similar age. We might have forgotten most of the details, but we used snippets from the play in our conversation. Just as we all knew, “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” we could all quote Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “Alas, poor York! I knew him Horatio,” and the soothsayer in the play Julius Caesar, “Beware the Ides of March.”

The dramatic technique of foreshadowing, expertly employed by Shakespeare, has colored the perception of many people my age about the nature of prophecy. In the play the warning of the soothsayer proves to be central. Caesar is assigned on March 15. The problem is that we sometimes forget that the soothsayer is a fictional character in a play. We begin to think that there are people who can predict the future.

As an interpreter of scripture, I constantly had to do bits of teaching to people in my age group about prophetic literature. It is common for folks to read those sections of the bible looking for predictions about the future. Prophets, however, play the role of bringing God’s message to people, not predicting the future. The Revelation of John in the last book of the Christian Bible contains significant teaching about how to remain faithful in troubled times, but it is not a prediction of the future. I have been asked, however, many times to interpret contemporary events reported in the news in the light of what people see as predictions made by that book.

I’m no good at predicting the future. Like any other fool, however, I occasionally make some statement that ends up coming true. Once, when your two children were young adults and working through the process of forming relationships and becoming married, I said, casually to them, “I think five grandchildren is a good number.” Somehow the number five for grandchildren became a bit of a family joke. After the birth of our first grandchild in 2011, the number five kept coming up. At the time it seemed unlikely that there would be that number of grandchildren. There were some significant struggles on the way. But here we are. We have five grandchildren. That does not make me a predictor of the future. When I made the statement, I was incapable of imagining what it would be like for us to have five grandchildren playing in our back yard.

It has turned out, however, that five is a good number for us, just like two turned out to be a good number for children in our case.

The truth didn’t come to our family in terms of the number or the count of grandchildren as much as it did in the sharing of the joy of being parents. Having children has been such an important and wonderful part of our lives that we wanted our children to have that joy. Their becoming parents has delighted us because we were so delighted to be parents ourselves. Regardless of the number, I feel fortunate to have had conversations with our children that conveyed positive feelings about raising children. Our children and their spouses are really good parents. I know that there are times when it is hard for them to keep up the balance of family and career in the pressures of these times, but I also know that they are blessed by their children and have learned to treasure time with them.

I can’t predict the future, but I can express my hope. I don’t care if our grandchildren remember the menu of last night’s dinner, or how they were required to cooperate with their grandparents by putting on matching t-shirts and lying on the lawn to pose for a picture. I doubt that they will remember the last minute pivot when we added macaroni and cheese and a grilled cheese sandwich to the menu when a couple of grandchildren weren’t eating the grilled vegetables and chicken we had planned. What I hope they remember, however, is how good it is to be together. I hope they remember how happy it makes their grandfather just to have them come and play at our house. I hope they remember picking cherries and eating them off of the tree. I hope they remember their parents laughing with each other at the picnic table on the deck.

And I’ll go out on a limb once more. I think that a dozen great grandchildren would be a fine number. I doubt that the number will be accurate, but I do hope that each of the five one day has the opportunity to feel the joy of children of their own. And whether or not they have children, I hope that they remain close enough to each other to share the joys they find.