Shade Tree Wisdom 3/13/12

          The report is that we have had as much rain since January of this year as we had by November last year, that accounts for the year of the drought.  I am thankful that this is true and the Lord has been sending us this much needed moisture.

          We are nearing the mid-point of the Lenten season and have been looking closely at the hidden areas of our lives to search out what we have tried to keep away from sight.

          A recent Portals of Prayer turns to the Hound of Heaven, a poem written a hundred years ago by Francis Thompson. It begins,
                “I fled him, down the nights and down the days;
                  I fled him, down the arches of the years;
                  I fled Him down the labyrinthine ways of my own mind,
                  And in the midst of tears. . .”

          The poem speaks of the ways a young man tries to evade God, the many ways he tried to hide. Just as in the last days of Jesus Pilate asks, “What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” Matthew 27,22.  It is a question we cannot evade eventually and each must have a answer.  Either we see Him as Lord and Savior or we join the mob that cried, ”Crucify Him”.

          Lent reminds us that “with the Lord there is mercy and with Him there is plenteous redemption.” Palm 130,7.  For “The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to redemption” 2 Peter 3,9b.  And our study during lent makes this truth stand out again.  God earnestly and really wants us to be saved.

          So the poem ends with :
              “Is my gloom that shade of His hand outstretched caressingly?
                Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
                I am He whom Thou seekest”.

          May the Lenten hours open your eyes, too, to His great love which sent Jesus to the cross for our sins.  Praise His Holy name.

GPD 3/13/12