God Writes Straight in Crooked lines
There is an old Portuguese proverb that has stayed with me for years: “God writes straight in crooked lines.” I have always loved it because, in a few simple words, it captures something most of us eventually discover. Life rarely unfolds in a straight line. It moves through disappointment, delay, heartbreak and unexpected turns, and looking back over the decades, I can honestly say that very few of the most important moments in my life arrived by the route I had planned.
The Chinese tell a story that makes a similar point. An old farmer’s horse ran away, and his neighbours came to console him. “What terrible luck,” they said. The old man simply replied, “Maybe.” A few days later the horse returned, bringing several wild horses with it, and the neighbours rejoiced at his good fortune. Again, the farmer said only, “Maybe.” Then his son tried to tame one of the horses, fell and broke his leg. The neighbours lamented the disaster, but the farmer gave the same answer. Soon afterwards, the emperor’s army came through the village, conscripting every able-bodied young man for war. Because of his broken leg, the farmer’s son was left behind.
The story ends there, and wisely so, because its point is not to tell us whether the farmer’s fortunes were ultimately good or bad, but to remind us how little we know when we judge the events of our lives. What looks like disaster in one chapter may look very different several chapters later. We seldom possess enough knowledge to say with certainty whether today’s setback will prove to be a curse or, in some unexpected way, a blessing.
Christianity, however, takes the thought further. The Chinese story teaches that life is unpredictable, but Christianity declares that life is purposeful. Behind what appears to us as accident, interruption and confusion stands a God who neither sleeps nor loses control. Events that seem random or disconnected from our point of view may, in the providence of God, belong to a pattern we cannot yet see.
Joseph understood this better than most. Sold into slavery by his own brothers, falsely accused, imprisoned and forgotten, he had every reason to believe that his life had gone terribly wrong. Yet years later, standing before the very brothers who had betrayed him, he said, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” That sentence in Genesis 50:20 is remarkable because Joseph does not say that God merely rescued a bad situation after the event. He recognises that while his brothers were acting with one intention, God was working with another. Human evil and divine providence were moving through the same events, but toward entirely different ends.
That is an extraordinary thought. It means that what looks like chaos to us may still be part of a larger composition. We see only the loose and tangled threads, while God sees the whole tapestry. We see the delay, the detour and the disappointment, but He sees where the road is leading.
The Apostle Paul expresses the same confidence when he writes that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” That does not mean all things are good. Christianity does not ask us to pretend that betrayal, grief, injustice or suffering are anything less than painful. It makes a greater claim than that: none of them is beyond the reach of God, and none of them can finally defeat His purposes.
Perhaps that is why the old Portuguese proverb continues to resonate. From where we stand, the lines may look crooked, uneven and thoroughly wonky, but that does not mean the Author has lost His hand. God is still writing straight.