| Devotional Hours with the Bible |
Chapter 24 |
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We have read how the cry of the wireless went out from the wrecked ship and was heard far and wide over the sea — a prayer of distress — and how help came swiftly. No one doubts this pathetic experience of the sea. Why, then, should we doubt or question that when a mother sat by her sick child the other night, while the little one hovered between life and death, and pleaded with God, her prayer reached the ears of her heavenly Father? Why shall we doubt or question that God loves us when we believe that our human friends love us? You cannot see the love in the friend’s heart any more than you can see the love for you in God’s heart. You tell me that your friend is true, is patient, and is kind; that he is a refuge, a tower of strength, to you. But you cannot see these qualities in him. Your friend is much away, out of your sight, and you cannot set spies on him to know that he is always faithful. Yet you never doubt him. Evil tongues whisper false things about him, but you refuse to believe them. How do you know that your beliefs in him are true? Why can you not, then, in the like manner believe in the love of God, who you cannot see?
A sorrow breaks in upon the joy of your home. You cannot understand it. By why must you understand? We would be far happier sometimes if we did not try to understand things. Dr. Robertson Nicoll says: “There are some very devout people who know far too much. They can explain the whole secret and purpose of pain, evil, and death in the world. They prate about the mystery of things as if they were God’s spies. It is far humbler and more Christian to admit that we do not fully discern a reason and method in this long, slow tragedy of human existence.” You remember that Jesus Himself said, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now” (16:12). Why should we expect to understand God and God’s ways?
God does show Himself to us, and we do see Him more often than we think. There is a picture of Augustine and his mother which represents them looking up to heaven with deep earnestness, great eagerness, and longing. One is saying, “If God would only speak to us!” The other replies, “Perhaps He is speaking to us, and we do not hear His voice!” Philip said to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father.” And did you notice what Jesus said to him? “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father, but Jesus told him that he had been seeing Him all the time He had been with the disciples. What Philip had in mind when he said, “Show us the Father,” was some revealing of glory, some outshining of majesty and splendor, a theophany, a transfiguration. That was the way he thought God must appear. When Jesus said, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father,” He referred to Him common daily life with His disciples, not to His miracles. Only a small proportion of the things Jesus did were unusual, supernatural. Ninety-nine percent of His acts were simple, common things that did not need Deity to perform. He performed only one miracle in the Bethany home, but in His frequent visits — sitting with the family by the open hearth or at the table, talking with them in the quiet evening, walking with them in the garden, sharing with them the gentle things of friendship — there were a thousand kindnesses which made His name sacred to them.
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