Winter lays upon the pond its thick, glossy cloak of ice, blanketed with snow. The water is no longer visible to the human eye. Below the ice, the water still flows, the fish still move. Cut through the ice and life can still be found.
Into our life blows a freezing, bitter blast. Upon our heart we feel the severe, icy grip of wintry cold. The ice hardens. We may doubt that the water of life still flows, for now it is obscured. We can no longer see it.
But, be sure, the water of life never freezes, never dries up. It ever flows, abundantly, from the throne of God. The burdens, the tragedies, the anxieties of life, however, can bring a hardening barrier between ourselves and the source of life. We have to cut through the ice. We must drink to live. We need the nourishment of the Word to survive.
Why then the ice, the anguish, the grief? That is Job’s question. And God answers, “From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen?” (Job 38:29,30, NIV as all quotes). The ice is from God; it has a purpose. “He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes. He hurls down his hail like pebbles. Who can withstand his icy blast?” (Psa. 147:16,17). But the story ends not there. “He sends his word and melts them: he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow” (v.18).
Our suffering is for a limited time and is subject to our Father’s control. Job struggled intensely, as do we. What we cannot understand, we try to accept. Then, gradually and painfully, faith matures, through trial, into real trust. “You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy” (James 5:11). “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Psa. 147:3).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One