Surely there are things, at times, too great for us to learn, and so God is wise not to reveal them. We may hear them in the word, yes, but it is not always “the time” for us to learn some lessons in life. There were times in my own faith, for example, when I needed God to teach me about the surety of His grace, and so He took me to His eternal predestination like in Romans 8:29-30 and made me to lay down in that humbling pasture. There was a time when I needed to become aware of and abhor the messages of the false prophets in my life, and so he showed me the depths of Satan even in the church, Matthew 7:15. There were times when I needed to stand in awe of His dreadful wrath, and to sense the great anger He has toward sin, so He disclosed to me His hell in places like Matthew 18:8-9 and made me to lay down there. There were times when I needed to know that He desired steady faithfulness and not a feelings-led disciple, so He seemed to withdraw Himself from me for a time so I could know my weaknesses and be endeared to another grace, 2 Corinthians 12:9. There were times when He wished to make me trust in Him alone, and so He crushed what I thought were my dreams, Jeremiah 10:23. I could not learn these things on my own or equally at any time.
We must learn of His great love and tenderness, and so He fixes us to His cross, Romans 5:8. This is the sweet pasture wherein I find myself now. God, like the wisest master builder, is teaching me wonderful things that I wouldn’t/couldn’t have celebrated before. I couldn’t have loved His love in the measure He is now displaying it before. I wasn’t ready. I needed other things. I was too immature and would have perhaps only taken it for granted five years ago. Today He has mixed the pallet of colors well enough to paint this picture inside me. Maybe now He’s prepared the soil enough. Oh, there are some lessons that await us all still! What a joy to find them in His word, and to know that there is an eternity more.
Tonight I danced with my 18 month old daughter in my arms. It was just us. I twirled and whirled with her in her pajamas to a song of praise while she giggled and smiled with delight in her father’s arms. With tears in my eyes I sang and felt a joy that is only possible in God’s grace. This is not just the love of a father! This is the love of a father with a heavenly Father! I have tears even now to dare dream that God could ever delight in me as I delight in her, but perhaps, just perhaps, He showed me a bit tonight of what will be when my sin is gone. Of what Adam once knew. Dare I liken Him to such an intimate God even now? I am shy to do so, but there is something in His wonderful and open grace that beckons me to a place where calling Him Father in no way strips His nature, but only establishes Him more as my sovereign and awesome God. I don’t fear taking His love for granted like before. I now fear not taking it to heart. There are many things God has and is for His children. Blessed are you who seek them. “…you shall be filled,” Luke 6:21.
“Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know,” Jeremiah 33:3.
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