With loving devotion, you will lead the people you have redeemed; with your strength, you will guide them to your holy dwelling (Exodus 15:13).

God made man perfectly holy and happy, and the earth, as it came from the Creator’s hand, bore no blight of decay or shadow of curse. It is the transgression of God’s law – the law of love – that has brought woe and death (Genesis 3:17). Yet even amid the suffering that results from sin, God’s love is revealed. 

The thorn and the thistles, the difficulties and trials that make his life one of toil and care, were appointed for his good as part of the training needed in God’s upliftment plan from the ruin and degradation that sin has wrought. In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting for God, for whom and through whom all things exist, to make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering (Hebrews 2:10).

There are flowers upon the thistles, and the thorns are covered with roses. Nature itself is full of messages of hope and comfort. “God is love” is written upon every opening bud, upon every spire of springing grass. The lovely birds, making the air vocal with their happy songs, the lofty trees of the forest with their rich foliage of living green, the sunshine and the rain that gladden and refresh the earth, the hills and seas and plains – all testify to the tender, fatherly care of our God and His desire to make His children happy.

We need distinct views of Jesus and a fuller comprehension of the value of eternal realities. The beauty of Holiness is to fill the hearts of God’s children; and that it may be accomplished, we should seek divine disclosures of heavenly things.

Let the soul be drawn out and upward, that God may grant us a breath of the heavenly atmosphere. We may keep so near to God that in every unexpected trial our thoughts will turn to Him as naturally as the flower turns to the sun.