Patience With Life’s Unanswered Questions

O LORD our God, our Maker! Life is strange to us! This Thy world is so fair, we Thy creatures are so faulty! The harmonies of nature are so sweet, the bells of our lives are so jangled, out of tune, and harsh! There is a music of the spheres, but we cannot hear it. There is a wisdom which through all strife and doubt and mystery foresees the end, but that wisdom is not ours. We may not hear this music; we may not know this wisdom; but we may walk as little children in the light which Thou dost give us, and so, one day, all shall be well.

There is so much that we wish to know, so little that we can know; so much that we wish to see, so little that these poor dim eyes can look upon. Our questions are so many, Thine answers are so few. Sometimes it seemeth to us strange that we should wish to know so much, and stranger still that Thou shouldst tell us so little. But grant that this little that we can know may be so well learned that the knowledge of it may enter into and beautify our lives; and the little we can see may be so earnestly looked upon, so clearly understood, that we shall not miss our way at last to the open vision of Thy perfect Will.

Father! we know nothing, save that we are in Thee, and surrounded by Thee. Let that suffice us. One day Thou wilt round these cares and strifes, these doubts, these sorrows, these longings, into Thine own everlasting calm. What can we understand of this unfulfilled perplexing thing, which we call Life? Meaningless are the movements of the dancers’ feet to him who hears not the music to which they fall. No purpose is there in the weaver’s toil, to him who cannot see the slowly-growing pattern unfolding itself beyond. We see the labour and the toil, but we see not the golden thread of Thy purpose weaving above, beneath, into order and beauty. We see the strife, the hurry, the confusion, but we hear not the music to which this mazy dance of life is keeping time.

Fain would we listen for one wandering note of Thy celestial harmonies, but Thou hast willed that we may not; and sadly yet patiently we turn our wearied heads, and go on in the silence which must be best for us, since Thou hast willed it so.

Forgive us when we cannot be at peace; when the heart will question, when the mind will doubt. In that Thou hast given us spirit, Thou hast given us restlessness. Pity us, when seeking, we cannot find.

Give to us a sure trust in Thy Changeless Will, which underlies this changing life, and guides it to a noble ending. Be it enough for us that Thou dost hear the music to which our human sense is deaf; that the light of perfect love and perfect wisdom shines upon the path which to us is oftentimes so dark. In our darkness may we be content that Thou dost know it all. In strife and discord may we still ourselves with the thought that over all there broods unheard by us, the eternal harmony of Thy Will. Thus may we watch, thus may we wait, until at last for us shall dawn the glorious, the long-wished-for, the Eternal Day. And these things we do ask in the name of Jesus Christ.—AMEN.