LOOKING BACK FOR GOD 8-13-17

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith from a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter… ©

O Father of light and leading,

            From the top of each rising hill

Let me cast my eye on the road gone by

            To mark the steps of thy will;

For the clouds that surround the present

            Shall leave this heart resigned,

When the joy appears in the path of tears

            That led through the days behind.

George Matheson, Devotional Selections from George Matheson, Andrew Kosten, Editor [Abingdon, New York and Nashville, 1962] Page 51.

It’s a fascinating take on the past-this poem-that we should use the vantage point of each hill not to look forward, but to look back, in order to see where God has been with us.

It is part of Matheson’s meditation on Matt. 11:28, “Come to me, you who are labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He says that up to this point, Jesus was working out of pity, and so his work wearied him. But when the people, even as masses, became his friends, then there was rest, not fatigue, both for him and for them.

We almost always think of the high points as places from which to look forward. They are. That was the view of Moses on Mt. Nebo. But they are also vantage points for looking back, in order to see God at work.

JRMcF

johnrobertmcfarland@gmail.com

I tweet as yooper1721.

I have often extolled my old friend, Walt Wagener, as one who is expert at “blooming where he’s planted.” Once when I did so, Helen said, “I want to bloom BEFORE I’m planted.” So I started writing a book of meditations for old people, sort of like my book for cancer patients. I called it BLOOM BEFORE YOU’RE PLANTED. I was never able to get an agent or publisher interested in the idea, though, so I’m now using some of the “chapters” for that book in this blog.