Who can even guess how many still lie beyond, unseen, unnoticed, unheard of?
The regions of space are endless, as God their Maker is endless.
And all these countless worlds are under the eye of the King of kings.
He rules all, watches all, guides all.

Can I, then, believe that He will have time to take notice of my tiny affairs?
Can He care if I am sick, worried, or poor, or depressed?
Surely I must be ready to say with the Psalmist-- 'When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained, what is man, that Thou art mindful of him?
and the son of man, that Thou visitest him ?' Yet that quaint old saying of John Flavel the Puritan is right, 'The man who watches for Providence will never want a Providence to watch.' In other words, he who trusts his concerns to a higher power, he who puts his cause in the Lord's hands, will never be disappointed.

The God who rules the universe will not forget to attend to him, but will watch him, and guide him, and help him, as tenderly as if he was the only being in that universe.
St.Augustine used to say, 'Lord, when I look upon mine own life, it seems Thou hast led me so carefully and tenderly, Thou canst have attended to none else; but when I see how wonderfully Thou hast led the world and art leading it, I am amazed that Thou hast had time to attend to such as I.' How much more must we wonder at God's loving care, when we look beyond this tiny world to the countless millions of worlds in the universe! Nehemiah was watching for Providence.

He had taken his case to God, he had trusted all to Him, and Nehemiah did not want a Providence to watch; the God in whom he had put his confidence did not disappoint him.
'Let me go that I may rebuild Jerusalem,' says the cup-bearer; and the great Persian king does not refuse his request, but (prompted, it may be, by the queen who was sitting by him) he asks: 'For how long shall thy journey be?
and when wilt thou return ?' 'And I set him a time.' How long a time we are not told.

Nehemiah did not return to Persia for twelve years; but it is probable that he asked for a shorter leave of absence, and that this was extended later on, in order to enable him to finish his work.
Cheered and encouraged by the king's manner, feeling sure that God is with him and is prospering him, Nehemiah asks another favour of the king.