A wise, and most kind, as well as holy Providence

(Thomas Guthrie, 1803-1873)

"He existed before anything else, and He holds all creation together." Colossians 1:17

God's work of providence is "His most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing of all His creatures and all their actions."

Providence has no Sabbath. No night suspends it, and from its labors God never rests.

Our world is but an outlying corner of God's creation; bearing, perhaps, as small a proportion to the great universe, as a single grain bears to all the sands of the sea-shore, or one small quivering leaf to the foliage of a boundless forest.

Yet, even within this earth's narrow limits, how vast is the work of Providence! How soon is the mind lost in contemplating it! How great is that Being . . .
  whose hand paints every flower, and shapes every leaf;
  who forms every bud on every tree, and every infant in the darkness of the womb;
  who feeds each crawling worm with a parent's care,
  who watches like a mother over the insect that sleeps away the night in the bosom of a flower;
  who throws open the golden gates of day, and draws around a sleeping world the dusky curtains of the night;
  who measures out the drops of every shower, the whirling snow-flakes, and the sands of man's eventful life;
  who determines alike the fall of a sparrow, and the fate of a kingdom;
  who so overrules the tide of human fortunes, that whatever befalls him, come joy or sorrow, the believer says, "It is the Lord; let Him do what seems good to Him." 1 Samuel 3:18

"He holds all creation together." Wonderful words, as spoken of One who, some eighteen centuries ago, was a houseless wanderer, a pensioner on woman's charity, and frequently without a place where to lay His head! Yet how clearly do these words attest His dignity and divinity! In ascribing this great work of providence to Jesus Christ, my text calls you to render divine honor to Him.

In the hands that were once nailed to the cross, it places the scepter of universal empire!

On those blessed arms that, once thrown around a mother's neck, now tenderly enfold every child of God-it hangs the weight of worlds.
 
"He holds all creation together." Every object in nature is impressed with His footprints, and each new day repeats the wonders of creation. Yes, there is not a morning we open our eyes, but they meet a scene as astonishing as that which fixed the gaze of Adam when he awoke into existence. Nor is there an object, be it . . .
  pebble or pearl,
  weed or rose,
  the flower-spangled sward beneath or the star-spangled sky above,
  a worm or an angel,
  a drop of water or a boundless ocean,
in which intelligence may not discern, and piety may not adore, the providence of Him who assumed our nature that He might save our souls.

The comfort of God's redeemed people rests so much on the conviction . . .
  that the Lord Jesus reigns,
  that His hand rules every event,
  that a wise, and most kind, as well as holy Providence presides over our daily fortunes and all things besides.

"The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful Word." Hebrews 1:3