The Gate

Recently a beautiful lady gave me a poem on a card that really encouraged me as DH and I look ahead to the New Year. Despite my love of history and literature and despite being well known in some circles (I think it's been made into a song and King George read it during his Christmas Eve address in 1939 which was when Britain as a nation faced the prospect of another world war) I had never heard of it before receiving the card.

The poem was written by Marie (some sources give her Christian name as Minnie) Louise Haskins who appears to have gone about her daily life without seeking fame. It seems she did not even hear the King read her now-famous poem! But her poem has touched hearts and lives ... mine included.

It's simply called 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.

Comments

bunches of yarn said…
Such a beautiful poem.
Saw you stopped by...I should make some time to chat at Daisy's or Fox's.
Blessings to you and your growing family.
^__^