MUSINGS

“I ... HAVE SET YOU” (John 15: 16) It should comfort and steady us to remember that divine love and wisdom have entered into our being in the circumstances in which we are. How widely those circumstances and settings vary! Some are severely limited; others have much more liberty. May God be glorified in both our limitations and in our liberty. When Paul was free to visit and serve the saints over a wide area the Lord was honoured in his life and in his labours. When he was in prison he was uncomplaining, his spirit buoyant, and his entrance into heavenly things peculiarly rich. We visited an aged sister, unable to move beyond her four walls, but she was rejoicing in the Lord’s nearness to her and supplicating for His world-wide interests. How much we owe to the prayers of such! It is priestly service of a high order.

In a beehive there are bees whose work it is to clean the cells, feed the young, and regulate the temperature. One of them might think, ‘Here am I, kept in this gloomy hive, how I would love to join those who can fly out over the sun-drenched fields and visit the lovely flowers’.

But that bee’s function in that confined area is essential to the well-being of the colony and just as important as the more attractive and conspicuous activities.

May we seek grace to be selflessly where we have been set, and to be for the glory of God there.

FCM