John MacDuff, "The Rainbow in the Clouds"

"You do not realize now what I am doing,
 but later you will understand." John 13:7

Much is baffling and perplexing to us in God's
present dealings. "What!" we are often ready
to exclaim, "could not the cup have been less
bitter; the trial less severe; the road less dreary?"

"Hush your misgivings," says a gracious God; "Do
not arraign the rectitude of My dispensations. You
shall yet see all revealed and made bright in the
mirror of eternity!"

 "What I am doing" -it is all My doing, My appointment.

You have partial view of these dealings; they are
seen by the eye of sense through a dim and distorted
medium. You can see nothing but plans crossed, and
gourds laid low, and "beautiful rods" broken. But I
see the end from the beginning.

"Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"

"Later you will understand!"

An earthly father does not baffle the ear of his small
child with hard sayings and involved problems. He
waits for the manhood of being and then unfolds all.

So it is with God!

We are now in our infancy; children lisping in earthly
infancy a knowledge of His ways. We shall learn the
"deep things of God" in the manhood of eternity!

Christ now often shows himself only "behind the lattice,"
a glimpse and He is gone! But the day is coming when
we shall "see Him as He is!" when every dark hieroglyphic
in the Roll of Providence will be interpreted and expounded!

It is unfair to criticize the half finished picture;
to censure or condemn the half developed plan.

God's plans are here in embryo.

But a flood of light will break upon us from the
sapphire throne; "In your light, O God! we shall see
light." The "need be," muffled as a secret now, will
be confided to us then, and become luminous with love.

Perhaps we may not have to wait until eternity for
the realization of this promise. We may experience
its fulfillment here. We frequently find, even in this
present world, mysterious dispensations issuing in
unlooked for blessings.

Jacob would never have seen Joseph had he not
parted with Benjamin. Often would the believer
never would have seen the true Joseph had he not
been called on to part with his best beloved!

His language at the time is that of the patriarch,
"I am indeed bereaved!" "All these things are against
me!" But the things he imagined to be so adverse,
have proved the means of leading him to see the
heavenly King "in His beauty" before he dies.

Much is sent to "humble us and to prove us."

It may not do us good now, but it is
promised to do so "at our latter end."

I shall not dictate to my God what His way should be.

The patient does not dictate to the physician. He
does not reject and refuse the prescription because
it is nauseous; he knows it is for his good, and takes
it on trust.

It is for faith to repose in whatever God appoints.

Let me not wrong His love or dishonor His faithfulness by
supposing that there is one needless or redundant drop
in the bitter cup which His loving wisdom has mingled.

"You do not realize now what I am doing,
 but later you will understand." John 13:7