| The Every Day of Life |
Chapter 11 |
Page 5 |
Not knowing what is before us teaches us trust in God. If we could see all our paths open in advance and knew just what is coming, what temptations, what rough places to be gone over, what heavy burdens to be carried, what enemies to be encountered, what duties to be done, we should grow self-confident, should try to direct our own life, and should not feel the need of God’s guidance, help, shelter, and wisdom. One of the blessings of not knowing is that we must walk by faith; and nothing could be better than this. Self-confidence is the bane of Christian life. It is through faith that we are saved.
A young mother holds in her own, her baby’s little hands. She knows that folded up in them is the tangled skein of life’s destiny. She knows that she must teach those hands to do life’s duties. A deep sense of responsibility and fear fills her heart as she holds these little hands in hers and prints passionate kisses upon them.
“How will they build, these little hands?
Upon the treacherous, shifting sands,
Or where the rock eternal stands?
And will they fashion strong and true
The work that they shall find to do?
Dear little hands, if but I knew!
Could I but see the veiled fate?
Behind your barred and hidden gate!”
Page 5