Quit your ‘Had I know!’
Many there are times in life as a Christian when we fall into trouble.
Our doubts in their barrages turn double
And our fears render our faith feeble
How we question! How we wonder:
"How I wish I had mitigated the past!"
How we regretfully assert:
"My carelessness begot the evil on my path."
Dear Friend, I plead, quit your "Had I know's!"
Like Mary, say no more, "Master, If only You had been here..."
Oh, the Master knew before your case got this worse.
If there was nothing of a lesson or a blessing in His purpose,
To the Master shall noting stand as a hindrance.
For the absence of gain in delayed healing, Jesus proceeded promptly to the Centurion's house.
For the profit lacking in respite, swift was Jesus' response to the wine shortage at Cana of Galilee.
Oh, the Master knew when the sickness could be stopped, death to repulse.
But if He decides to allow death before His arrival, O, What benefit death must be!
I submit, if the case has so worsened and has become, humanly speaking, disconsolate,
This hopeless state is a better state than the perceived previously promising.
Oh, this delay is a blessing in disguise, even a huger advantage.
Jesus knew when Lazarus, His gentle, lowly friend, took ill,
But because in it there is the glory of God to be revealed,
Jesus hesitated: He showed less preference for prevention than occurrence;
Jesus chose a posthumous visit over preemptive appearance.
Did the wisest of all Hebrew kings, not inscribe:
"A man's steps are of the Lord" who has especially chosen to be His disciple,
How then can such understand his own way?" concludes the proverb\[^a\].
Jesus is God's Way of doing things, and the ways of the Lord are past being searchable.
Same shall be the way of Him who, on earth, has chosen to be a pilgrim.
It may be better, I reckon, to accept life with our God-appointed trials.
To glorify God, many times, may mean self-denial.
Jesus craved for Himself a "resurrection and the life" portrayal.
The cost was gloom to Mary and mournful sob to Martha.
Mary and Martha had to part with their pleasant desires;
Their wills to have their brother alive was relinquished, as would a martyr.
Wallowing in the pains of a current wreck's cause vastly deters the progress of a traveller.
Invigorating is it to shut the door behind and hopefully contemplate what lies ahead.
Shut the doors to "Were you here,..." and plead your cause with "Who is here!"
Of less importance is the thought of the possibility of deep waters' aversion,
When He who has promised to be there with you has taken His position.
If, however, Jesus seems far away in trouble times, O weep, I bid you weep, till along His visage motions.
But on arrival, O wipe your tears for to you has come understanding-surpassing peace as a consolation.
Oh, rejoice, he has all powers to wipe away your tears - heaven in depiction.
Graciously, He may reverse the situation to recover the joy lost to "desolation",
Or perfectly still, by His presence, drowns out the pain while sustaining the situation.
Oh, why not lean for repose on His infinitely infallible wisdom:
That in pain or pleasure, bane or blessings - "all working together" for your good is your portion?
No pain nor pricking has come your way whose extent He hadn't regulated.
No sting has been supplied by God that your bearing grace has not superseded.
Let us not, like Martha, in the pains of loss or disgrace of lack be submerged.
Look, if the Master is around, pleasure in pressure is here, and it will be provided.
Whatever you do to alter God's providence will also render God's glory bedimmed.
Not in Lazarus' recovery, but in his resurrection was God ultimately glorified.
Oh, while then we are progressing on our pilgrimage, doing all things that God may be magnified,
Tears are good - they are a perfect cleansing solution for eyesight.
Loss is good: it will create a space for the Master to occupy.
Denial is good: in having nothing, so shall we possess all things.
Loneliness is good: to Him alone shall our longing cling.
When the Master shall have arrived, for every death, there will be a consolatory resurrection.
For every pain the death of selfish interests inflict, there will be corresponding spiritual promotion.
Let the sick Lazarus die; a new, healthy Lazarus will revive.
Let the sin-sick self be buried; a new man will emerge, filled with God's love.
The sight of the new man will marvel many - dazzling to God's glory.
Such a man whom the Lord will love to abode, sup and ponder with.
He will provide Jesus with an address on his street as with Lazarus in Bethany –
A shelter to the Savior in this world of hostility.
