What I'm Reading Today...

One day in early summer I walked past a beautiful meadow. The grass was as a soft and thick and fine as an immense green Oriental rug. In one corner stood a fine old tree, a sanctuary for numberless wild birds; the crisp, sweet air was full of their happy songs. Two cows lay in the shade, the very picture of content.

Down by the roadside the saucy dandelion mingled his gold with the royal purple of the wild violet.

I leaned against the fence for a long time, feasting my hungry eyes, and thinking in my soul that God never made a fairer spot than my lovely meadow.

The next day I passed that way again, and lo! the hand of the despoiler had been there. A plowman and his great plow, now standing idle in the furrow, had in a day wrought a terrible havoc. Instead of the green grass there was turned up to view the ugly, bare, brown earth; instead of the singing birds here were only a few hens industriously scratching for worms. Gone were the dandelion and the pretty violet. I said in my grief, "How could anyone spoil a thing so fair?"

Then my eyes were opened by some unseen hand, and I saw a vision, a vision of a field of ripe corn ready for the harvest. I could see the giant, heavily laden stalk in the autumn sun; I could almost hear the music of the wind as it would sweep across the golden tassels. And before I was aware, the brown earth took on a splendor it had not had the day before. (excerpt from Streams in the Desert)

I recently read this in my devotions; it wasn't the first time I had read it, yet it still spoke to my heart. So many times in my life I am guilty of being so short sighted, I only see one day at a time. I, look at my life and think that I know best, I want to take control and do something now rather than wait on God. I look around me and see friends getting married and others moving away, and wonder, "What about me, Lord?" There was a time I would gaze into my future, and it looked like that beautiful meadow...it was all to perfect and I was certain I knew what it held. However, my future, just like that meadow has been uprooted. This last year has not been all a bed of roses for my family. We have went through hard times, spiritually, and financially. But, I know that "His way is perfect." I know that all though my future may be veiled right now, the Lord will reveal it to me in His timing. I know that when His way is made clear, when my bare brown earth is transformed into a field of ripe corn, that all my worrying for the future will have been pointless. So, even if the Master Plowman comes, as He often does, and uproots my plans, and turns under that which I thought should be, I will know that He is no idle husbandman, for He purposeth the crop for my future...