| The Best Things in Life |
Chapter 20 |
Page 6 |
The disciples asked the Master whose sin it was – the sin of the blind man or of his parents, that he was blind. Jesus replied, “Neither – no one’s sin, but that the works of God might be done in the man.” He meant that this blindness gave him the opportunity of doing a work of mercy. May it be that this child’s condition finds its reason in the ministry of love which is called out in the mother and the father? It has been a wonderful training and education for them. They have been prepared by it for a blessed service to other suffering ones. Perhaps in heaven they will learn that they owe to their child’s long and painful suffering much of what they shall then wear of the beauty of Christ.
In one of the famous lace shops of Brussels there are certain rooms devoted to the spinning of the finest and most delicate lace patterns. These rooms are altogether darkened, save for the light from one very small window, which falls directly upon the pattern. There is only one spinner in the room, and he sits where the narrow stream of light falls upon the threads of his weaving. “Thus,” we are told by the guide, “do we secure our choicest products. Lace is always more delicately and beautifully woven when the worker himself is in the dark, and only his pattern is in the light.”
May it not be the same with us in our weaving? Sometimes it is very dark. We cannot understand what we are doing. We do not see the web we are weaving. We are not able to discover any beauty, any possible good in our experience. Yet if only we are faithful, and fail not and faint not, we shall some day know that the most exquisite work of our life was done in those very days when it was so dark. If you are in the deep shadows because of some strange, mysterious providence, do not be afraid. Simply go on in faith and love, never doubting, not even asking why, bearing your pain in silence, and learning to sing while you suffer. God is watching, and he will bring good and beauty out of all your pain and tears. Just as truly in such experiences as this, as in the brightest and most joyous, can we say, “Thou art showing me the path.” This very path which seems to you so dark, so hard for your feet, is the path God is choosing.
Page 6