~APRIL SHOWERS BRING MAY FLOWERS

I Saw God Wash the World

By William L. Stidger

I saw God wash the world last night

    With His sweet showers on high,

And then, when morning came, I saw

    Him hang it out to dry.

He washed each tiny blade of grass

    And every trembling tree;

He flung his showers against the hill,

    And swept the billowing sea.

The white rose is a cleaner white,

    The red rose is more red,

Since God washed every fragrant face

    And put them all to bed.

There's not a bird, there's not a bee

    That wings along the way

But is a cleaner bird and bee

    Than it was yesterday.

I saw God wash the world last night.

    Ah, would He had washed me

As clean of all my dust and dirt

    As that old white birch tree.

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~HE IS FOR US

"God loves you and wants your best."

"...we must understand that God longs to help and bless us...All of history tells the story of those who let You guide them, Lord, and those who didn't.  Help me open the pages of my life to Your instruction."

"Lord, it is easy to give in to despondency in the face of adversity.  Thank You that no matter how deep the hole we are in, Your arms can reach us there."

"Keep focused on His compassion and mercy, and you shall see the flowers of your faith bud into a beautiful new season."

~Quotations are from Pathways to His Presence,
by Charles F. Stanley~

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~HAVE A GRACE-FILLED EASTER

"The One who rolled away the stone and defeated death is more than capable of working out His purposes in our lives today."

~Kathy Troccoli and Ellie Lofaro~

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~A POEM FOR GOOD FRIDAY

This is an intriguing poem which compares three things with Christ's sacrificial death on the cross. 

First of all, there is the aloe plant, which blooms but once and then dies.  See the "Agave" entry here.  It is also interesting to find that this plant is called "The Mexican Tree of Life and Abundance" because it is so useful; moreover, one of it's strengths is its possession of antiseptic qualities--I see definite Christian parallels here.

Second, there is the myth of the pelican, which began in medieval Europe and subsequently became associated with Christianity.  See the "Symbolism and Popular Culture" section here.  The following are a few more links about this legend: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (in the 13th paragraph).

Third, there is the myth of the singing swan from which the phrase, "swan song," originates.  Here you'll find information about the swan and Christian symbolism, including many other parallels besides that of the swan song.

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THE ALOE PLANT

Have you heard the tale of the aloe plant,
    Away in the sunny clime?
By humble growth of a hundred years
    It reaches its blooming time;
And then a wondrous bud at its crown
    Breaks into a thousand flowers;
This floral queen in its blooming seen
    Is the pride of the tropical bowers;
But the plant to the flower is a sacrifice,
For it blooms but once, and in blooming it dies.

Have you heard the tale of the pelican,
    The Arab's Gomel el Bahr,
That dwells in the African solitudes
    Where the birds that live lonely are?
Have you heard how it loves its tender young,
    And cares and toils for their good?
It brings them water from fountains afar
    And fishes the seas for their food.
In famine it feeds them what love can devise--
The blood of its bosom--and, feeding them, dies.

Have you heard the tale they tell of the swan,
    The snow-white bird of the lake?
It noiselessly floats on the silvery wave,
    It silently sits in the brake;
For it saves its song till the end of life,
    And then, in the soft, still even,
'Mid the golden light of the setting sun
    It sings as it soars into heaven,
And the blessed notes fall back from the skies--
'Tis its only song, for in singing it dies.

You have heard the tales.  Shall I tell you one,
    A greater and better than all?
Have you heard of Him whom the Heavens adore,
    Before whom the hosts of them fall?
How He left the choirs and anthems above
    For earth in its wailings and woes,
And suffered the shame and pain of the cross
    To die for the life of His foes.
His death is our life, His loss is our gain--
The joy for the tear--the peace for the pain.

~By Dr. Henry Harbaugh~

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*Here is another version of the last stanza, which I have just discovered:

Have you heard this tale--the best of them all--
    The tale of the Holy and True,
He dies, but His life, in untold souls
    Lives on in the world anew;
His seed prevails, and is filling the earth,
    As the stars fill the sky above.
He taught us to yield up the love of life,
    For the sake of the life of love.
His death is our life, His loss is our gain;
The joy for the tear, the peace for the pain.

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Here is a video in which the poem is recited:

  

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~QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

When all that my eyes seem to see

Is the dark and the sadness in me

Deep in my heart I still know

That in everything I feel

Your strength serves to show

That You are sufficient for me

And You are the vision that I need in my eyes

When all I have come to count on slips away

My security's gone

Just as my lips start to pray

Emotions run so deep

That my heart can only say

That You are sufficient for me

And You are the vision that I need in my eyes

~Lyrics to the song, "You Are Sufficient,"

by Jennifer Rothschild~

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