| The Best Things in Life |
Chapter 12 |
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Sorrow is full of mystery. Every way we turn we hear people ask, why? “This is not love,” we say. “This is not goodness. This is not divine care.” We cannot understand. But how could we, with our narrow vision and our partial knowledge, understand the infinite purposes of God?
Then God does not want to give us an easy life – he wants to make something of us, and ofttimes the only way to do this is to give us pain, loss, or suffering. A writer tells of keeping for nearly a year the flash shaped cocoon of an emperor moth. A narrow opening is left in the neck of the flash, through which the perfect insect slowly forces its way. The opening is so small that it seems impossible for the moth to pass through it. This writer watched the efforts of the imprisoned moth to escape. It did not appear to make any progress. At last he grew impatient. He pitied the little creature and resolved to assist it. Taking his scissors, he snipped the confining threads to make the struggle easier. In a moment the moth was free, dragging out a great swollen body and little shriveled wings. He watched to see the beauty unfold, but he watched in vain. It never was anything but a stunted abortion, crawling painfully about, instead of flying through the air on rainbow wings. Nature’s way, God’s way with moths, is the only true way, although it is a way of pain, struggle, and suffering. Human pity may make it easier, but the end will be destruction.
Divine love never makes this mistake, either in nature or in dealing with human lives. God lets us suffer, for by suffering we shall best grow into perfect beauty. When the mystery of pain or hardness comes into our life, let us not doubt. The disciples thought all their hopes had perished, but in the end they learned that every hope was fulfilled. Good came out of what seemed irretrievable disaster. “Believe in God, believe also in me,” is always the word of faith and comfort. We cannot understand, but our Master understands, and that is enough.
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