A Harmonising Providence
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God." -- Romans 8:28
In the cathedral of Pisa there is a wonderful dome, spacious, symmetrical, com-posed of the choicest marble. It is a delight, travellers tell us, to stand beneath this dome and gaze upon its beauty. "Thus I stood," says one traveller who visited this cathedral, "one sunny April day, when suddenly the air became instinct with music. The great dome seemed full of harmony. The waves of music vibrated to and fro, loudly beating against the walls, swelling into full chords, like the roll of a grand organ, and then dying away into soft, long-drawn, far-reaching echoes, melting in the distance into silence. It was only my guide," this traveller explains, "who, lingering behind me a moment, had softly murmured a triple chord. But beneath that magic roof every sound resolved into a symphony. No discord can reach the summit of that dome and live. Every noise made in the building, the slamming of the seats, the tramping of the feet, all the murmur and bustle of the crowd, are caught up, softened, harmonised, blended and echoed back in music."
Herein is a parable which helps us to understand the workings of Divine Providence. Over the lives of those who love and trust God hangs the dome of His providence, the overarching dome of His wisdom, mercy and power; and what-ever adversities and afflictions He permits us to suffer will be caught up and harmonised, and will at last be echoed back to us in soft and blended strains of heavenly music.
Whatever we may think of the sufferings and calamities which are visited upon us in this life, we may be sure things are not going at random in God’s universe. Running through human life and human affairs there is a harmonising providence; and some day to our corrected sense the truth will appear, as written: "All things work together for good to them that love God."
