The cupola of the world-famous St. Paul’s Cathedral in London was painted by Sir James Thornhill, and the work had to be done while standing on a temporary platform high above the pavement. One day when he had finished an important detail on which he had spent hours of painstaking effort, Thornhill stopped to inspect what he had done. Slowly he began moving backward to get a better view. The man helping him suddenly became aware that one more step would result in a fatal fall. To startle Thornhill with a shout might also make him topple from the scaffold. Quick as a flash the fellow-worker took a brush and made a sweeping stroke across the exquisite masterpiece. Greatly disturbed, the artist rushed forward with a cry of anger and dismay. After his companion explained the reason for his drastic action, however, Thornhill burst into expressions of gratitude.
In a very similar way, we too shall some day thank God for those experiences which in this life brought tears to our eyes and sorrow to our hearts:
- The weight of rearing a mentally-retarded child.
- The feeling of being robbed in a love affair.
- The heavy load of patient endurance in the midst of false accusation.
- The untimely death of a loved one.
- The burden of financial struggle when all seems to be going well for others.
- The heaviness of-pain which you are called upon to endure.
- The heartbreak you have experienced because of a wayward son or daughter.
- The aloneness and rejection that is yours as the world passes you by.
The night of adversity is often long and trying, but we may rest in the fact that our Heavenly Father has a wise purpose for every seeming hardship He allows to darken our lives. At times it may seem that the morning of joy may seem utterly remote. And yet morning will surely come as God has promised. May all of us rind renewed strength in the words of the Psalmist: “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning!” (Psalms 30:5).
–Paul W. Brubaker
July/August 1977
