you. My feeble hand lies in his. His omnipotent hand is clasped
around mine. Alexander Smiley, The Secret
Place, 1907. Truly I say to you, unless you
are converted and become like children, you will not enter
the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18, verse 3. One writes of Robert Louis Stevenson
that it was part of his genius that he never seemed to grow
old like the rest of us, but was a child, a boy, a young man,
and an old man all at once. Just so, Jesus bids me to keep
the young lamb's tender heart amid the full-grown flocks. I
look into the face of the child. There are no hard and haughty
lines of pride. There is no blatant self-importance
in the features. Humility is written there. Can
I get back my vanished humility? I can. God the Spirit creates
it when, in my conversion, He shows my sinfulness and teaches
me to abhor my vile self. And He fosters meekness more
and more as He confirms in me the conviction that not for a
moment dare I dispense with my Saviour and Keeper and Friend. I survey the mind of the child.
It is teachable, it is well aware of its ignorance, and it hungers
and thirsts for knowledge of every description. And is there
a mind anywhere that God has touched which does not feel itself
in the presence of problems still to be disentangled, mysteries
waiting to be unfolded, great tracts of truth of which it knows
a little? I have parted with the delusion
of my own wisdom. I sit as a child at the feet
of my great prophet, Christ. I peer into the imagination of
the child. It lives in a realm of marvels. But as I grow older, I pass out
of the magical country. But when I experience the miracles
of saving grace, they are more extraordinary than the marvels
I have left behind in childhood. My sense of wonder and astonishment
are reborn. I remember the affections of
the child. They are the shrine of love,
unbounded and enthusiastic and outspoken love. But by and by
I am less frank and more reticent. Convention, if not cynicism,
has frozen the love-look in the eyes and the love-speech on the
tongue. Is there anything that will break
the ice? Yes, the sight of God's love and grace in Christ will. That brings me back to the spring. That makes my heart grateful,
devoted, and affectionate. I note the hand of the child.
It is not tremulous and worried. It trusts. It lies in the Father's
hand, certain that the Father will lead it aright. Just so,
to the same peace and unruffled faith the new birth should conduct
me. Confiding in my adorable Redeemer
and Heavenly Father, I ought to have no gloomy fears about
either my temporal or my eternal well-being. My feeble hand lies
in His. His omnipotent hand is clasped
around mine. all is well because I know that
God causes all things to work together for good to those who
love God to those who are called according to his purpose Romans
chapter 8 verse 28 you