I heard the story of an elderly minister who liked to visit people in hospitals. He often would take along a little embroidered bookmark that he carried in his Bible. On the back of the bookmark were a group of tangled threads with no apparent pattern. He would hand this bookmark, with the back facing up, to those who were hurting or upset and say, “Look at that and tell me what it says.”
As they looked at all the tangled threads, they would say, “I have no idea what it says. It doesn’t seem to say anything.”
Then he said, “Now, turn it over.”
As they would flip that bookmark over, they saw the words, “God is love.”
The minister would say, “Many times as we look at what God is doing, we just see tangled threads with no rhyme or reason. But from God’s perspective, He is dealing with us in love, and He knows what He is doing.”
The next time you think it is all over for you, open a Bible and read about Joseph who was sold into slavery by his brothers, falsely accused of rape and imprisoned, yet became the second most powerful man in all of Egypt.
Read about Daniel, a young man who feared God and because of it was thrown into a pit filled with hungry lions.
Yet, God closed the mouths of the lions and they didn’t lay a paw on him. Things looked hopeless as well for Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego when they refused to deny God and were thrown into the fiery furnace, yet God Himself was right there with them and they walked out unscathed. Things looked pretty grim for Peter when he was in prison, and for Martha and Mary when their brother died.
There’s no guarantee that your difficult situation is going to end up like these, but there is something you can count on. When you’ve placed your life in God’s hands, He’s promised: “I will never leave you. I will never forsake you”. (Hebrews 13:5)
And when things look impossible, which sometimes happens, remember what Jesus said: “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible”. (Matthew 19:26)
You see, things can look bad at one moment, but then God will step in and turn events around. Then suddenly you’ll look back and say, “Now I understand what God was doing.”
Let me encourage you to move forward, even in the difficulties. Even when they look impossible, God can make the impossible possible.