Day 2: Nothing by chance
You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways...You hem me in behind and before, and You lay Your hand upon me (Psalm 139:2-3, 5).
God’s plan for each life includes the smallest affairs of that life. The things that come into our experience are not mere happenings. Happen is not a truthful word—that is, we should not think that anything comes into our lives as a mere happening, without God’s knowledge and permission.
Likewise, the word chance should not be used idly, as though something that broke into our life independently of God. The old poet’s way of putting it is better: “It chanced—Eternal God that chance did guide.” For nothing ever comes into our experience simply by chance, in the sense that it is outside of God’s purpose for our life, and beyond God’s control.
~ James R. Miller ~ Afterward You Will Understand, pub. 1909
“Yesterday, when I said, ‘Thy will be done,’
I knew not what that will of Thine would be,
What clouds would gather black across my sun,
What storm and desolation waited me;
I knew Thy love would give me what was best,
And I am glad I could not know the rest.
“ ‘Thy will be done,’ I say, and to the scroll
Of unread years consenting set my name;
Day after day their pages will unroll
In shining words that prove Thy love the same,
Until my years are gathered into one
Eternal, sanctified, ‘Thy will be done.’ ”
~ fr. James R. Miller ~ Would our way be better?
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