By Hannah Tu

It should have happened sooner, but I finally got around to watching the classic 80s movie “Back to the Future” for the first time. If you haven’t seen the film, I’d bump it up on your watchlist. As the title implies, it’s a nostalgic joyride on the time-continuum, starting in the 80s and flying back to… well, just go watch it.

Time travel, multiverses, and situations that mess with the course of the world have fascinated humans for centuries. The earliest known concept of a multiverse takes us back to ancient Greece and a group of theorists known as the Atomists. They posited that random collisions of atoms created the world as we know it, a process that allowed for the formation of other such worlds. Time warp to 1895, and the introduction of H.G. Wells’s book, “The Time Machine,” which popularized the idea of transporting backward and forward in time via geeky gadgets. Since then, modern stories and movies have focused on the idea of alternate realities, fascinated by the question, what if history were different?

The question has both plagued and intrigued us. There are choices in life that we’d like to change or opportunities we wished we tried. We understand that seemingly small decisions have an untold impact on our lives, and by extension, the world’s history. Pop culture has seen its share of authors and filmmakers exploring ideas such as, what if one’s parents never met? What if the hero missed that flight or married that girl? What if one could undo his or her mistakes? Stories about multiverses and time travel scratch the itch of the what if’s? As Doc Ock in the multiverse film “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” points out, “Every choice that we make [creates] countless other possibilities.” Something in us longs to know that our current moment is the best alternative out there: that the choices we make and the lives we’re living amount to something worthwhile.

Interestingly, this comment from a villain isn’t far from the truth. While the Christian worldview holds to one ultimate narrative, it doesn’t preclude the idea that different choices could produce different “realities.” One thinks of the Old Testament prophets who presented their hearers with blessings for following righteousness and curses for choosing disobedience to God. The most striking example of the “what-if” universes comes from Jesus’s statement in Matthew 11:21-24.

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.”

Jesus claims that the fate of entire cities would have changed if the variables were different. This remarkable statement reveals two relevant takeaways: first, God knows the possible “dimension” threads from every individual choice (which is mind-blowing if you think about it); second, our decisions impact our lives and the direction of world history.

It also begs the question: if miracles at the right place and time would have saved hundreds of lives, why didn’t God perform signs and wonders in these now non-existent cities? Romans 8:28 provides a clue. The verse tells us that God works all things for the good of those who love him. God orchestrates the cosmos toward the best “reality” strand while still allowing for human agency. He’s aware of other possibilities but shapes the world’s course for the good of believers, which in turn fulfills his ultimate purpose: his own glory (Revelations 4:11; Romans 11:36).

This doesn’t mean things will go the way Christians want. Sometimes, our ideals and the fate of world history are at odds (Jeremiah 45:4-5). While we won’t understand the why behind certain events, we believe that God has a reason for the narrative of our life and the trajectory of the universe. Isaiah 46:9b-10 asserts, “I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’”

Nevertheless, God’s sovereignty does not annul human responsibility. Changing the past isn’t a possibility, but we can affect aspects of the future (Galatians 6:7-9). Like main protagonist Marty McFly realizes in “Back to the Future,” the choices of today shape tomorrow’s outcomes. Our mission is to do our part faithfully in our own strand of space and time (1 Corinthians. 4:1-2), leaving the world’s destiny in the hands of a sovereign God.

This article originally appeared here.