‘Why did you not foresee it?’
‘You ask about the very nature of foresight, from your words and tone, you suggest it is no different to looking back down a road already travelled , and seeing the places and people you have passed.’

‘Is that not the function of foresight? To see the future before it unfolds?’

‘You imply omniscience.’

‘I imply nothing, unless by my own ignorance. I merely seek enlightenment. ’

‘I see.’

‘I mean no disrespect.’

‘… I take no umbrage at your questions. Think on this, then. I prepared all, I warned of incoming perils. Coupled with this, everone knew of those dangers themselves.. What difference would it have made had I labelled things differently? ’

‘I don’t know. I can’t see what might have changed. I cannot see into the skeins of fate. ’

---

‘ You speak of seeing the future without knowing the limits of what you speak. Where you stand now is the present. Do you see the top of the cliff?’

‘Of course.’

‘That is the future. You see it. You know what it is. Now reach it.’

‘Now?’

‘Climb. You questioned the nature of my foresight. I am granting you an answer. ’

Less than ten heartbeats had passed when a rock cracked and crumbled, another gave way... The last few metres to the rocky ground in a breathy cloud of white dust.

‘ You looked for places to safely grip, yet you have already stumbled. You did not know the stone was weak. ’

‘ It looked strong... ’

---

‘Yes, It did, and you only learned the truth too late . Now climb.’

‘It is not necessary. I believe I understand now.’

‘Do you? Look out across the water.’

The water rippled in sedate waves, sloshing around the rocks that lined the shore. At the horizon’s very edge, the mirroring lip of another landmass.

‘I see another land. An island, perhaps...’

---

‘You see the shore. You know it is there. You know you could reach it by ship, or by swimming, or by flight. That is what you know .
So you journey towards it. But all you can see is your destination. You cannot see the beasts below the water that devour travellers. You cannot know if the wind will blow and throw you aside from your course. And if the wind does blow, will it send you east? West? North? South? Will it shatter your craft completely? Perhaps there are rocks beneath the water, impossible to see until they grind and tear at the hull of your ship. Perhaps the inhabitants of that far shore will fire upon your craft before you can make landfall.
But you can see the shore. Did you fail to predict any of those possible flaws between here and there?’

‘Perhaps I predicted them all. Perhaps I factored in the possibilities of each one occurring.’

‘Maybe so. And what of the eventualities you could not predict? Each passing moment is rich with a hundred thousand possible pathways. The craftswoman making your boat may suffer a heart failure before she can gift it to you. Or she decides not to offer you the boat at all. You say the wrong words to her. You offer the wrong currency. She lies to you, for she is a thief. An enemy sabotages your boat before you set sail. You reach halfway across this channel of water, only to see a more appealing coast to the east or west. Minute after minute, possibility upon possibility, path after path. All variables you are unable to see from where you stand at this moment. ’

‘I can see the coast. I know what awaits me there. But I cannot see all the infinite vicissitudes between here and there. ’

---

‘That is foresight. To know a trillion possible futures, and to be left to guess at the infinite ways of arriving at each one. To map out even one possible eventuality, taking into account every decision that every living being will make that will impact upon the others around it, would take all of the lifetimes I have already lived. The only way to know anything for certain…’

Three words that no one had ever heard Him speak before: ‘I don’t know.’