Time is precious – Day 1

God has his own timetable and we are all part of that divine plan. Often, we fall into the trap of trying to put God in a box of our own making. We believe we know better and expect our Creator to act as we, with our fallible minds, would if we were in his place.

We are very aware that inexplicable, shocking things are increasingly happening to innocent victims in our fallen world. Where is God when tragedy strikes? Where is God when death, terminal illness or divorce shatters a family unit?

It is a common phenomenon that when a husband or wife loses a loved one to death, they are often irrationally angry at their loved one for leaving them. Too often people in that position blame God for their loss and their faith grows cold.

Isaiah had a word of pastoral advice for times like these: “Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:7-9).

In December 1939 all was doom and gloom for Britain. King George VI made a radio broadcast, warning his subjects of dark times ahead and encouraging them with these closing words from a poem, “The Gate of the Year”, by Minnie Louise Haskins:

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:

“Give me a light so that I may tread safely into the unknown.”

And he replied:

“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.

That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”

May the Holy Spirit enable us to do likewise.