Day 16. Mysterious Providence
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"You do not realize now what I am doing — but afterwards you will understand." John 13:7
Like many other words of Christ, this saying of His has a much wider application, than its primary reference to Peter's perplexity. It furnishes the key to many of the painful or mysterious providences of our lives. We do not understand them at the time. We do not see how they can have any blessing in them for us. They seem altogether dark. But we have no right to judge of our Master's work in us, or with us — until it is finished. "You do not realize now what I am doing." How could we be expected to understand all the Master's great thoughts?
Yet this is not the end. "Afterwards you will understand." This mystery is to be explained. This perplexity is to be resolved into the clearness of noonday. You do not understand now — because you cannot yet see the end — you cannot perceive the blessing and the beauty. The Master Himself knows just what He is going to bring out of each mysterious work of His — and therefore He is not perplexed.
Jesus says that "Afterwards you will understand." We shall see the tangles resolving into lovely grace and beauty!
What is the lesson? That we should trust God's heart — when we cannot understand His ways with us. No doubt, divine love has planned them all. No doubt, there is blessing in the outcome, as it lies now in God's mind. No doubt, we shall see the blessing, too, afterwards !
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