Scripture Devotion
Not all things are good — but they work together for good.
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
Reflection
The promise is not that all things are good — a lie no honest person could hold — but that they work together for good. The individual threads may be dark; the weaving is what's promised. Some of what goes into the good is itself painful, and the verse doesn't pretend otherwise. It claims a pattern, not a denial. And the pattern has a designer: according to his purpose. This isn't blind optimism that things tend to turn out fine. It's the confidence that a purpose is at work threading even the hard things toward good, for those held in it. A Tuesday sits inside that weaving, its part not yet visible from here.