| The Every Day of Life |
Chapter 3 |
Page 3 |
Wherever there is weakness in any one, the strength of God is especially revealed. “The Lord preserveth the simple.” The simple are those who are innocent and childlike, without skill or cunning to care for themselves, those who are unsuspecting and trustful, who are not armed by their own wisdom and art against the wiles of cruel persons. The Lord takes care of these, defends them, keeps and guards them. Indeed, the safest people in the world are those who have no power to take care of themselves. Their very defenselessness is their best protection.
There is a Turkish proverb, which says, “The nest of the blind bird is built by God.” Have you ever seen a blind child in a home? How helpless is it? It is at the mercy of any cruelty, which an evil heart may inspire. It is an open prey to all dangers. It cannot take care of itself. Yet how lovingly and safely it is sheltered! The mother’s love seems tenderer for the blind child than for any of her other children. The father’s thought is not so gentle for any of the strong ones as for this helpless one. As one says, “Those sealed eyes, those tottering feet, those outstretched hands, have a power to move those parents to labor and care and sacrifice, such as the strongest and most beautiful of the household does not possess.” This picture gives us a hint of the special, watchful care of God for his weak children. Their very helplessness is their strongest plea to the divine heart. The God of the Bible is the God of the weak, the unsheltered. He sends his strongest angels to guard them. The children’s angels, the keepers of the little ones, the weak ones, the simple, appear always as heaven’s privileged ones before God.
The God of the Bible is the God also of the broken-hearted. There are divine words, which tell us that “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart,” that “He healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds.” The world cares little for the broken hearts. Indeed, people oftentimes break hearts by their cruelty, their falseness, their injustice, their coldness, and then move on as heedlessly as if they had trodden only on a worm. But God cares. The broken-heartedness attracts him. The plaint of grief on earth draws him down from heaven.
Physicians in their rounds do not stop at the homes of the well, but of the sick. Surgeons on the field of battle do not pay attention to the unhurt, the unwounded; they bend over those who have been torn by shot or shell, or pierced by sword or saber. So it is with God in his movements through this world; it is not to the whole and the well, but to the wounded and stricken, that he comes with sweetest tenderness. Jesus said of his mission: – “He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted.”
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