As I grow older, I tend more and more to see so much that can make me sad and a bit discouraged. It can stir me with a deep sense of compassion. For instance, how many people come to stand, at some time or another, on Mount Nebo. Mt Nebo was the mount Moses stood on when God showed him the promised land and told him he would not enter it. Again and again God says to people, “I have caused you to see with your eyes, but you shall not go there.” A couple makes plans for the future and their dreams of retirement, and then right on the threshold of it all, one is taken. Men and women struggle all their years in devotion to some cause, and just on the eve of triumph, they are gone. Again and again, we are allowed to see with our eyes but not allowed to go over. I wonder how many people have climbed their particular Mt. Nebo, saw something and learned it was not going to be for them?
And there is our likeness to Napoleon. After his great victories, Napoleon was shipped to a remote South Atlantic island named St. Helena. There’s a St. Helena waiting for many (most) of us be it a hospital, nursing home or just a room somewhere.
Growing up, probably most of us were wronged in one way or another. No life escapes some wounding early on. Everyone, to a large or small extent, has felt rejection. No one is safe from trouble in the world. It seems to be true that there is no uninterrupted joy. There’s what a poet called “the world’s rain of tears.”
On the other hand, the Psalms constantly urge us to look back and remember the things God has done for us. When I reflect on my own life, I do glimpse the hand of God. When I look back over my own life, I can see many “coincidences” or “lucky breaks” which now I can see as the result of divine intervention. When I reflect on my own life, I can often say, when certain events are well-examined, that God acted there; in that particular time His hand rested upon me. There were the fingerprints of a providential hand.
One result of longevity is that one can look back and see how things fitted together to form a pattern. One of the consequences of growing older is that one develops a sense of how one thing leads to another. I have experienced God’s grace and power in my life. Sometimes it takes time to understand things that happened. Meaning unfolds slowly. God’s presence is sometimes seen only in a “rear-view mirror.” There were moments when I knew that God cared for me personally. “You have kept an account of my wanderings; you have kept a record of my tears. Are they not written in your book?” (Psa. 56:9). I’m one of billions in the world yet I’m convinced God has paid special attention to me. The past makes me hopeful for the future.
I’m convinced that God will bring into my life what or whom I need. We are all objects of God’s mercy, some in one way, others in another.
Isaiah tells us that we are carved on the palm of God’s hand and will never be forgotten by God. Isa. 49:5-16: “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should have no compassion on the child of her womb? Even if a mother should forget her child, I can never forget you. Behold, I have written your name on the palms of my hands; you are continually before me.” Isaiah also has God say: “I am aware whether you stand or sit. I know whether you come or go” (37:28). Isaiah also has God say “you are precious in my sight. I love you. Do not be afraid, for I am with you” (43:4).
The Scriptures tells us that fear, not doubt, is the opposite of faith. Fear indicates a lack of faith. Mt.8:26: “And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm.”
Deut.31:6: “Be strong and bold; have no fear or dread, because it is the Lord your God who goes with you; he will not fail you or forsake you.”
St. Therese simply said, “everything is grace.” Many spiritual writers also claim that nothing happens by chance or accident. Even the psychologist Carl Jung said that “nothing happens by chance.” There are no coincidences; all is Providence. I’m convinced of that.
In Graham Greene’s novel Brighton Rock, there’s a fascinating statement, “You can’t conceive the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God.”
The ways in which God acts are generally inconspicuous. They usually don’t come as a bolt from the blue. God’s ways generally are not transparent. This is illustrated by the Biblical Book of Ruth, one of the great short stories that has come down from antiquity. The story of Ruth and Naomi often moves people to tears. God is never mentioned in the story, yet God’s involvement in human events is hidden but continuous. God is the invisible force working behind the scenes.
God is continually operating in human coincidences and schemes. God is directing the play. God’s hidden hand is at work creating opportunities for people, making meetings possible. Providence asserts itself in and through familiar happenings. Every prayer in the book finds an answer.
So, I pray the Lord to stay with me and keep me in His sight. Hold me tight, O God. I like something Hosea (6:13) said: “He will come like rain to us, like the spring rain that waters the earth.” And finally, I pray:
Give us joy to balance our afflictions
For the years when we knew misfortune…
Give success to the work of our hands.
Give success to the work of our hands. (Psa.90:17)
