The best metaphor of Time is the river. It flows. But if it flows, where is it flowing from? Apparently, it flows from the future into the past — through the present. The Time we experience now has come from the future.

The River of Time is full of future, which can be felt in the present. That’s how prophets foresee what’s coming — they see future in the present. They have the ability to interpret Time — to discern the seeds of the future hidden within the moment.

They may not understand the full meaning of what they see but they recognize what’s coming by the signs they perceive. The river of Time brims with the seeds of future. That must be what the apostle Paul saw in Onesimus, the runaway slave of his friend Philemon.

Onesimus ran away as a slave — possibly having stolen something from his master — but Paul saw him as a free man. When a runaway slave, guilty of theft, desires to return to his master, it means he is no longer a slave. He is free. Looking at him, Paul recognized a seed of the future — a time when slavery itself would be abolished.