SEEING THE UNSEEN WORK

I had witnessed a miracle: an apartment building had magically sprung up overnight. I was perplexed because I had driven through the area many times before, and never noticed any work being done--no work trucks, no construction crew, and no building materials. If someone living there had said a fourplex apartment was being built, I would have thought they were joking or lying. How, then, did an apartment structure appear out of nowhere? It didn't--my view of the work was obscured by a grassy hill.

The big hill faces the road and the apartment building is nestled behind it--only the top floors and roof are visible. The hill hindered me from seeing months of hard labor: the laying of the foundation, the beams being raised, and the walls being put in place. Just because I couldn't see work being done doesn't mean work wasn't happening--the problem was my perspective. Had I stood on the other side of the hill, I could have seen the work that was hidden from my sight.

Similarly, there is a "hill" obscuring our perception of the unfathomable work that our gracious God is always doing for our good and His glory--a veil between the physical realm we live in and the spiritual realm where God performs His sovereign will. But just because we sometimes do not see His providential work for our soul-betterment and His renown does not mean He is idle. The Lord is the hardest worker in existence--never clocking out or taking a break from doing whatever it takes to fulfill His good plan for His children (Rom. 8:28). He "neither slumbers nor sleeps" (Ps. 121:4), and as Jesus said, "My Father is working until now, and I am working" (John 5:17). Because of this, every believer can say with the psalmist, "The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me; thy mercy, O LORD, endureth forever; forsake not the works of thine own hands" (Psalm 138:8, KJV).

From our limited perspective, we may think that God is inactive--not working in our efforts to reach the unsaved, not working in our marriage and in our kids' lives, not working in our church, not working in our personal sanctification, and not working amidst our heartbreaking troubles. But God assures us, as He assured the prophet Habakkuk: "For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told" (Hab. 1:5b). Thus, we are commanded to "walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Cor. 5:7), trusting His plan and promises even when we cannot see the fulfillment of them with our physical eyes. The unseen God is at work in your life, and one day, when you stand in His presence on the other side of the hill, His perfect plan will be made plain. As Jesus promised, "What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand" (John 13:7).