Hitherto...

     It was a regular old weekday.  A regular old late afternoon.  A regular old chilly December day.  A regular old walk for Bingley on the regular old greenway.  Same old, same old.
     Only God breaks through in glory.
     What a sunset.  All to remind us that because He is on the throne, all of our "regular olds" in life are anything but. Not with the Almighty Creator and Redeemer sustaining, upholding, orchestrating, superintending all--all, from the far flung galaxies to this spinning blue planet to the minutest details of each of our lives.
     And now this rainy morning,  I'm reminded that His ways are not our ways.  "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isa.55:8-9)
     We don't understand why dear friends must struggle with serious illnesses.  We can't comprehend why God allows other dear friends to stagger under the loss of a child.  We can't imagine how God could salvage good out of what seems to be nothing but sorrow and suffering.
     But in those moments, we trust the heart of our Savior even when we cannot see His hand.  We trust what we do know--that He sent His only beloved Son to invade and redeem and restore a lost and broken planet all out of His astounding, staggering love for us.  That He who came so infinitely far for us, to save us and to bring us all the way home, well, He will not fail us nor desert us now.
     That His ways are so far beyond our ways and that somehow, someway, He is working all things--ALL things--together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. (Rom.8:28)  Even illness and suffering and death and pain.
     I was just now reminded of one of my favorite Spurgeon quotes based on the little verse, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." (I Sam.7:12)  While Janie was in the hospital, a dear friend gave us a small rock with that verse written on it, and that rock still sits on our kitchen counter today.  Our Ebenezer of God's forever faithfulness...even in and through the fires of life.  Because His ways are not our ways...but His ways were, are, and will be, forever right, good and perfect.  We trust...even when we cannot understand, because we look back and see His hand of love, grace, and faithfulness.
     For any who might right now be going through those fires, I hope this might be an encouragement.  It's a little long...but well worth it (as Spurgeon always is!)--

          "The word "hitherto" seems like a hand pointing in the direction of the past. Twenty years or seventy, and yet, "hitherto the Lord hath helped!" Through poverty, through wealth, through sickness, through health, at home, abroad, on the land, on the sea, in honour, in dishonour, in perplexity, in joy, in trial, in triumph, in prayer, in temptation, "hitherto hath the Lord helped us!" We delight to look down a long avenue of trees. It is delightful to gaze from end to end of the long vista, a sort of verdant temple, with its branching pillars and its arches of leaves; even so look down the long aisles of your years, at the green boughs of mercy overhead, and the strong pillars of lovingkindness and faithfulness which bear up your joys. Are there no birds in yonder branches singing? Surely there must be many, and they all sing of mercy received "hitherto."

But the word also points forward. For when a man gets up to a certain mark and writes "hitherto," he is not yet at the end, there is still a distance to be traversed. More trials, more joys; more temptations, more triumphs; more prayers, more answers; more toils, more strength; more fights, more victories; and then come sickness, old age, disease, death. Is it over now? No! there is more yet-awakening in Jesus' likeness, thrones, harps, songs, psalms, white raiment, the face of Jesus, the society of saints, the glory of God, the fulness of eternity, the infinity of bliss. O be of good courage, believer, and with grateful confidence raise thy "Ebenezer," for--

He who hath helped thee hitherto

Will help thee all thy journey through.

When read in heaven's light how glorious and marvellous a prospect will thy "hitherto" unfold to thy grateful eye!"

     Amen!  Might we all know and trust today that "He who hath helped thee hitherto, will help thee all thy journey through."  And He has.  And He will.  

     To God be the glory.