Tuesday, April 4

 Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Psalm 119:105

Life's journey has many twists, turns, reversals, confusing pathways and really muddy places. Many times have I turned to God's Word looking for passages to find understanding. Sometimes answers have been immediate and clear. Most of the time, answers have been less obvious, often coming from unexpected sources. Only faith that they will appear someday has kept us moving faithfully forward.

Minnie L. Haskin's poem says this so well, It begins like this:

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.”

...

For a person who always wants to know all the details and have a good map before ever embarking on anything, these words remind me that sometimes the best journeys are the unplanned ones begun in faith.

Dear Father, help us to look for your lamp that will surely guide us -- whether it be at the beginning of the path or somewhere along the way. Help us to know that your words may be written or spoken by others or may be felt merely in the quiet moments of our souls. Help us to be faithful in our trust that you will be our friend and guide and will never leave us. We ask this in Christ's holy name as we journey to meet him. Amen.

Libby Dickinson, 1996

Historical Note: According to Wikipedia, Elizabeth the Queen Consort made her husband George VI aware of an obscure poem. He included the poem's preamble in his Christmas 1939 BBC Radio broadcast to the British Empire. The opening words of the poem "The Gate of the Year" struck a chord with a country facing the uncertainty of war. These words were from Haskin's poem "God Knows" written in 1908 and expanded in 1912. However, she was not named as author by the King and no one was able to identify the poet at the time. Finally at midnight on Boxing Day the BBC announced that the author was Minnie Louise Haskins. Haskins, by then 64 years old, did not know that the King would quote her words, and did not hear the broadcast. On the next day, she was interviewed by The Daily Telegraph and said: "I heard the quotation read in a summary of the speech. I thought the words sounded familiar and suddenly it dawned on me that they were out of my little book." The 'little book' was The Desert published in 1912.