The following words are from the pen of Lilias Trotter, whose words and art have been beautifully packaged in the book above available on Amazon. This particular segment relates to the verse We live by faith, not by sight, from 2 Corinthians 5:7.
We have to do with One who “inhabiteth eternity” and works in its infinite leisure.
Some years ago, when a new railway cutting was made in East Norfolk, you could trace it through the next summer, winding like a blood-red river through the green fields. Poppy seeds that must have lain buried for generations had suddenly been upturned and had germinated by the thousand. The same thing happened a while back in the Canadian woods. A fir-forest was cut down, and the next spring the ground was covered with seedling oaks, though not an oak tree was in sight. Unnumbered years before there must have been a struggle between the two trees, in which the firs gained the day, but the acorns had kept safe their latent spark of life underground, and it broke out at the first chance.
And if we refuse to stay our faith upon results that we can see and measure, and fasten it on God, He may be able to keep wonderful surprises wrapt away in what looks now only waste and loss. What an up-springing there will be when heavenly light and air come to the world at last in the setting up of Christ’s kingdom!
A great encouragement when ministry seems to be ineffective – God is planting seeds we never know about, or perhaps forget about, but He’ll germinate them and enable them to flourish in His timing, and in His way!