He Knows His Own Design

I don’t believe a law or principle should be made out of verses which appear to answer something over which we are wrestling: a decision, an insight, a discernment, ought not to so lightly be determined by what seems a revelation in the moment.  Nonetheless God does use His Word to speak to us; it is, after all, a love letter meant to communicate.  

There once came a time when we teetered on the brink of a decision, consistent itself with Scriptural principles.  In the space of a day or so, confirmation came, then came mysteriously again, through the promise thus given, “Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will our Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”  We proceeded cautiously, optimistically.  

Some time later, when we were all but crushed by the boulder, then came the adder too.

That’s how it felt.  That’s how it appeared.  But now that yet another span of time has passed, my sight clears enough to realize, that’s not what God’s Word says.

It says that our Father will give good gifts to those who ask Him.

We asked. 

Therefore, what seemed so in the aftermath, was not all of God’s reality.

We do not know the end of this story. 

But we know God perfectly writes the intricacies and the simplicities of every beloved life He watched over, every adopted son and daughter He is perfecting in His artist’s studio.  

  

And what about the family who invested nine years of their lives to minister to a remote tribe in Indonesia, only at the very moment of settling in to be called back out in order to save their son’s life from the ravages of diabetes?  What about the woman who lovingly ministered among the Scots, hit by a truck and suffering now from MS symptoms?  What about the well-known stories of setbacks and loss, such as Elisabeth Elliott’s stolen suitcase containing her painstaking language translation work toward Indian Bibles?  The fires that destroyed William Carey’s work? 

We know no other truth than that the finale, the ending of the story, the full picture, will be Beautiful.  God-Beautiful.  As the sunrise, as the sunset, as the lavish display of His creation attests.  After all, what was His answer to Job?  You don’t need to know.  You just need to meditate on what My Creation reveals about My designs.

The gifts from the Father that Jesus had been describing prior to this verse are “those things necessary for disciples:  righteousness, sincerity, purity, humility, and wisdom”.  (footnote to Matthew 7:9-10, NKJ)

He knows His own design, and even as we are fearfully and wonderfully made, so it follows that the days of our lives ordained by God are fearfully and wonderfully designed for our good and for His glory.  There is no other truth, no other reality, no other pattern being woven.

God is good.  All the time.

  photos courtesy of Thistledown Cards