Poor little Winnie got into trouble on her way to school. Something was hurting her foot, and the further she went the more painful it became till she could not help crying.
But kind brother pitied her, and set her up on a stone wall and took her shoe off, and there found a pebble that must have been in her shoe when she put it on. Now that the trouble was all over, and she had learned what a kind-hearted brother she had, she could go on the rest of the way quite happy and all her tears were dried up.
What lesson do you think we may learn from this little incident? I expect there are several, but there is one that comes before my mind, and it is suitable for those who know the Lord Jesus Christ as thee Saviour, and God as their Father,
You know this is not a world with nothing but roses in it. Oh, no! it has thorns and thistles in it, too. So we have times in our lives when everything seems to go so smoothly, and then comes trouble. And why does our good and kind God and Father allow anything to happen to us but pleasant things?
You know He has shown His wonderful love for us in giving His beloved Son to die in our place; so the Scripture says, “He that spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:3232He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32).) The reason then for allowing difficulties to come in our path is not that He has ceased to love us, but that He sees the need to teach us lessons and prove to us His tender and loving care.
There is not a circumstance too small for us to take to the Lord, and learn what His love is to us, for we know that “All things work together for good to them that love God.” (Rom. 8:2828And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28).)
How should we know what His tender love and care is, if we had not a circumstance to prove it. Just like little Winnie, she found out how tender and loving her brother was by the trouble she was in with the pebble in her shoe.
But for those who do not know the Lord Jesus as their Saviour, and God as their Father, their trials are very difficult to bear, as they cannot go to God with them and learn His tender care for them. How much better it is to know the Lord than to be without Him.
ML 09/23/1917