As we move into the new year, this poem speaks to the core of our journey. When we don't know what's going on or where we're headed or how things are going to work out, one thing is for sure: God knows.
God Knows
And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the
night. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the
lone East.
So heart be still:
What need our little life
Our human life to know,
If God hath comprehension?
In all the dizzy strife
Of things both high and low,
God hideth His intention.
God knows. His will
Is best. The stretch of years
Which wind ahead, so dim
To our imperfect vision,
Are clear to God. Our fears
Are premature; In Him,
All time hath full provision.
Then rest: until
God moves to lift the veil
From our impatient eyes,
When, as the sweeter features
Of Life’s stern face we hail,
Fair beyond all surmise
God’s thought around His creatures
Our mind shall fill.
-- Minnie Louise Haskins, 1908
(Thanks to Aron Cooper for sharing this on his FB page)
It should be noted that Minnie Louise Haskins was a practicing member of Warmley Congregational Chapel, which is turn was an Anabaptist church split from the Presbyterian Church that practiced Calvinism. She grew up and worked in that church her whole life.
ReplyDeletePositionally she believed that we are all saved by grace through faith and are fully justified, made righteous, and sanctified by the Holy Ghost. But she also believed that Practically one needed to do the walk in the good works god ordained for her since the foundation of the world.
She knew the difference between positional and practical.
Ephesians 2:7-10 excellent sandwiched like bookends
DeleteEphesians 2:7-10 excellently sandwiched between two bookends : grace and poem. We are God's masterpiece foreordained for good works we walk in, and through grace by faith, saved walking in them to the end. Good researched thoughts and choice, Dave C.
DeleteAwesome Steve.. The Spirit of God breathed on these old words and has made them brand new!
ReplyDelete