Articles
In Times Like These
Years ago I was waiting at a railroad crossing on Wellington Street in Greenville. How long the train was I couldn’t tell, but it would go east for a while, then west. Back and forth. Back and forth. Over and over. Over and over.
Finally three Kansas City Southern locomotives came into view. They were pushing the train, and it looked like my wait was about to end. Nope. They stopped, then back and forth some more. I strongly suspect a switchman somewhere was making up a train. I could have turned around anytime I wanted but decided to stay awhile and observe. (It’s a good thing I did, because it provided the thoughts for this article!)
From where I sat all I could see were a few cars at a time. If I could have had a bird’s-eye view of the entire string of cars, it would be clearer as to what exactly was going on. Lacking that, I could only trust that whoever was in charge of all this to-and-fro business must know what he was doing.
In a similar way, we can see only a small segment of reality. Our perspective on life is extremely limited. Often life doesn’t seem to make sense. But if we could just see the Big Picture . . . . One benefit of Bible study is the broad view of life it provides us. From the Scriptures we learn that something big is indeed going on, not only all around us but also behind the scenes.
The Bible does not answer all our questions nor explain every mystery. But it does furnish enough light so that we can see that life is not meaningless and it is definitely going somewhere.
Even the painful reverses of life are part of the process. The long enforced waits have their place too in the Grand Scheme of things. They teach us patience. They teach us trust.
God is in control and He has a plan and it is good! We can be part of His plan anytime we are ready to cooperate with His will.
On one of the freight cars that passed back and forth that afternoon, someone had written, “Trust Jesus.”
Yes, let’s trust Jesus—enough to obey Him (Matthew 7:24-27; Hebrews 5:8-9).
