Streams in the Desert - May 04

He wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal. (Job 5: 18)

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The Ministry of Great Sorrow

As we walk beside the hills that have been so violently shaken by a severe earthquake, we realize that times of complete calm follow those of destruction. In fact, pools of clear, still water lie in the valley beneath the fallen rocks of those hills as water lilies reflect their beauty to the sky. The reeds along the streams whisper in the wind, and the village rises once again, forgetting the graves of the past. And the church steeple, still bright after weathering the storm, proclaims a renewed prayer for protection from Him who holds the corners of the earth in His hands and gives strength to the hills.
~John Ruskin

God plowed one day with an earthquake,
And drove His furrows deep!
The huddled plains upstarted,
The hills were all aleap!
But that is the mountains’ secret,
Long hidden in their breast;
“God’s peace is everlasting,”
Are the dream words of their rest.
He made them the haunts of beauty,
The home chosen for His grace;
He spreads forth His mornings upon them,
His sunsets light their face.
His winds bring messages to them—
Strong storm-news from the main;
They sing it down the valleys
In the love song of the rain.
They are nurseries for young rivers,
Nests for His flying cloud,
Homesteads for newborn races,
Masterful, free, and proud.
The people of tired cities
Come up to their shrines and pray;
God freshens them within again,
As He passes by all day.
And lo, I have caught their secret!
The beauty deeper than all!
This faith— that life’s hard moments,
When the jarring sorrows befall,
Are but God plowing His mountains;
And those mountains yet will be
The source of His grace and freshness,
And His peace everlasting to me.
~William C. Garnett

Reference

Cowman, L. B. E.; Reimann, Jim (2008-09-09). Streams in the Desert: 366 Daily Devotional Readings (p. 181). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

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