Someone shared the thought with me that the “greater the struggle, the greater the victory.”  Although the relationship of suffering to God’s care is a bit obscure and has puzzled theologians for centuries, I share a similar thought that I read this morning.

Testings are raining upon me which seem beyond my power to endure.  Disappointments are raining fast, to the utter defeat of all my chosen plans.  Bereavements are raining into my life which are making my shrinking heart quiver in the intensity of suffering…

…if you will but believe your Father’s Word, under that beating rain are springing up spiritual flowers of such fragrance and beauty as never before grew in that stormless, unchastened life of yours.

You shrink from suffering.  But God sees the tender compassion for other sufferers which is finding birth in your soul. Your heart wrenches under sore bereavement. But God sees the deepening and enriching which sorrow has brought to you. (taken from Streams in the Desert, (c) 1925 compiled by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman)

Testing – chastening – suffering – sorrow – affliction – turbulence – transition – whatever your word for it, it’s painful.  Is there a connection between this time of difficulty and God’s care to bring flowers out of the rain?  Are the rains of affliction God’s way of caring for us “more than the lily of the field?”  The lily, which blooms only for a week or two, spends most of its life in the darkness, underground, enduring bravely through cold winter snows and frigid temperatures.  Could this be why its beauty is that much more spectacular when it opens up in the spring?