February 19 Petition Mission

“You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know” (Job 42:3).

Job is quoting Jehovah here (see 38:2). It’s easy to overestimate what we can handle, and thus our frustration with God when He withholds some things from us. Corrie ten Boom recounts an occasion when, as a child, she asked her father a question beyond her capacity. Unlike him, he didn’t answer. But as the train headed into the station, he pulled his heavy case down and asked her to carry it home. Loaded with watches and parts they had just purchased, she told her Pappa it was too heavy for her. “Yes,” he said, “it would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a load.”

So it must be with us. Our Father knows how much we can carry. How crucial to maintain faith in the All-Knowing One, faith we may have learned in the light when all was clear, that will stand us well in the dark.