Dear Christian, does your heart with sorrow ache?
Do woes and worries plague your plodding hours?
And do your smiles fade like fragile flowers?
Does every breath seem more than you can take?
You beg of God your bones might once not break
Yet still they shatter, crack before earth’s powers.
You wonder why the sweetest milk still sours,
Why, why the oven burns what bread you bake!
Dear Christian, all these times that you have known,
Some times with pleasure, more perhaps with pain
Of bitter water not rich bowls of wine,
Both wells and ills are where your roots have grown,
Have flourished shoots that reach for heaven’s gain
And bear upon their branches fruits divine.
You cast your eyes upon the soil black
Beneath your feet where sinful soles have trod
And only see what in your life you lack
But not the fertile earth to grow in God.
These times, both glad and hard, are gifts of grace:
The days of drought to deeper dig and drink
His Living Word, to seek His Holy place
And in His promises your roots let sink.
For though the sod is dark and clouds your eyes
So that the Hope of Christ is hard to see
This grave is not the end and you will rise
With Him who is the Light who sets us free!
Dear Christian, though dark sorrows haunt your days,
Look up to Christ, your light and joy, in praise!
