You think you know what it is, but you are not sure, and it is not until the cards are all laid face up on the table in front of you that you can see what the problem is. The mystery card is a 6 of spades, only it is red, not black. The deck has been fixed. Someone has changed the rules, rules that prevented you from seeing what was there. You could not see a red spade because spades are supposed to be black.
Red spades are always hard to see.
Our expectations, however faithful, may prevent us from seeing what is there. In the first passage that Joyce read we come up against a prophet who has been called the original 'gloomy Gus' of the older Testament. But he lived in a time of great difficulty for his nation, difficulty which the people of his day had brought on themselves by their corrupt social policies and short-sighted political strategies. It's going to happen,' Jeremiah forecasted, 'you can count on it as absolute certainty. In those days I will establish a descendant of David as ruler, and he will establish justice and righteousness in the land and Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell secure.