Nothing Ever Wasted

I believe that God loves to use the hands and feet of those who love Him to bring “a word in due season to them that are weary”. I can’t tell you how many times, just when I needed it most, someone who could have never known the ache in my heart gave me a little glimpse of His care who knows, even the number of hairs on our head. Such was the case when a stranger’s heart was moved to send me this:

Much-Afraid looked at the Shepherd earnestly. “I have often wondered about the wild flowers…it does seem strange that such unnumbered multitudes should bloom in the wild places of the earth where perhaps nobody ever sees them… They have so much beauty and sweetness to give and no one on whom to lavish it, nor who will even appreciate it.”

The look the Shepherd turned on her was very beautiful. “Nothing my Father and I have made is ever wasted…and the little wild flowers have a wonderful lesson to teach. They offer themselves so sweetly and confidently and willingly, even if it seems that there is no one to appreciate them… All the fairest beauties in the human soul, its greatest victories, and its most splendid achievements are always those which no one else knows anything about, or can only dimly guess at. Every inner response of the human heart to Love and every conquest over self-love is a new flower on the tree of Love. Many a quiet, ordinary, and hidden life, unknown to the world, is a veritable garden in which Love’s flowers and fruits have come to such perfection that it is a place of delight where the King of Love himself walks and rejoices with his friends. Some of my servants have indeed won great visible victories and are rightly loved and reverenced by other men, but always their greatest victories are like the wild flowers, those which no one knows about.”

(Hannah Hurnard, Hinds’ Feet on High Places)

She couldn’t have known those secret heart battles, but right then, this little part of a book I have loved, but almost forgotten, met a need in my heart like nothing else could have just then. I knew that God had yet again chosen to give me a glimpse into His Heart, His love, and the way He works. Across miles, through a girl I didn’t even know, a message to remind me that He knows best. I’ve never forgotten it, nor the words she concluded the quote with, “Not one moment, or single step, is ever wasted with Him.” It is true, so very true, and I needed that reminder.

This stranger is now a friend. One who God continues to use to encourage my heart, to remind me that even crippled feet will one day be like Hinds’ Feet.