Here’s a poem my son sent me.
Amy Carmichael was born in Millisle,
Northern Ireland in 1867. She had a remarkable life and served as a
missionary in India for over 55 years! We showed a movie of her life in
Newtownbreda a few months ago. Among her many talents she was also a
thought-provoking poet on the subject of suffering for the cause of
Christ.
Consider this one. It touches on the subject of “no pain; no gain”
The servants of Christ will be scarred and marked. It was the case with
our Saviour and “It is the way the Master went; Should not his servants
tread it still”
No Scar
Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land,
I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star,
Hast thou no scar?
Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers, spent,
Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned:
Hast thou no wound?
No wound, no scar?
Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,
And, pierced are the feet that follow Me;
But thine are whole: can he have followed far
Who has no wound nor scar?
11 December 2012
I think of Jacob and his two big encounters with God. At the first (Bethel), Jacob calls the shots and has the audacity to say to God, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s house, then the Lord will be my God..." Does Jacob sound arrogant and unbroken here?
ReplyDeleteThen he has a second encounter at Jabbok and the sense is Jacob clinging to God, vulnerable, desiring His blessing. After that encounter, Jacob is changed, scarred, injured, limping - but with a new name and, I assume, a new heart.
The next time he goes to Bethel, it is with these scars and this new heart and it is there, where he was previously so unbowed, that God gives him the promise that will lead to our salvation.