The Voice of Circumstances

The following is from F. B. Meyer's book Samuel:  the Prophet:

"But if it was so with these circumstances [the early circumstances in Saul's life], must we not believe that as much may be said of all circumstances?  If a hair cannot fall to the ground from our head, or a sparrow from the tree, apart from God, can we say of anything that it is too trivial to come into the divine plan?

"Even let it be granted that many incidents happen at the instigation of evil men, yet they are permitted to reach us by the will of God, and therefore we may as much trace God's will in them for our own discipline and ennoblement [and/ or for the benefit of other people] as in those others which are evidently of His direct sending. 

"God's purpose ran through the wicked deeds of the betrayers and murderers of our Lord.  There was not a single event in all those fateful days that was not marked on the chart of divine providence; and since God is everywhere the same, and the same infinitely--so that we cannot say that He was more present there than here, or was more powerful then than now--we must admit that He is still as much in every circumstance of our lot as on those memorable and awful days when creation herself beheld the scenes of Gethsemane and Calvary with evident emotion.

"Let it never be forgotten that straying asses, an unexpected encounter on the street, the presence of a coin in the pocket, or its absence, are all part of a divine plan.

"He who has open eyes may read the Father's handwriting and take the direction of His path as though angels had flashed before his eyes to direct him.  And the prepared path always leads to the vacant seat and the waiting portion.

"The road may be long and the tax on patience and strength considerable, but the Father never draws His trustful and obedient child into a quagmire or leads him out on the moorland to perish of exposure to the cold.

"There is always a destination to which the road leads, and it only calls for the quick eye, the ready ear, and the obedient heart, to detect the things that God has prepared for those who love Him."