Post by MIRIAM JACOB on Jul 11, 2008 6:59:58 GMT -5
Impossible Flowers
"For with God nothing shall be impossible" (Luke 1:37).
Far up in the Alpine hollows, year by year
God works one of His marvels.
The snow-patches lie there,
frozen with ice at their edge
from the strife of sunny days and frosty nights;
and through that ice-crust come,
unscathed, flowers that bloom.
Back in the days of the by-gone summer,
the little soldanelle plant spread its leaves
wide and flat on the ground,
to drink in the sun-rays,
and it kept them stored in
the root through the winter.
Then spring came, and stirred the
pulses even below the snow-shroud,
and as it sprouted, warmth was given out
in such strange measure that it thawed a
little dome in the snow above its head.
Higher and higher it grew and always
above it rose the bell of air,
till the flower-bud formed safely within it:
and at last the icy covering of the air-bell
gave way and let the blossom through into the
sunshine,
the crystalline texture of its mauve
petals sparkling like snow itself as if it bore
the traces of the flight through which it had come.
And the fragile thing rings an echo in our hearts
that none of the jewel-like flowers nestled in the
warm turf on the slopes below could waken.
We love to see the impossible done. And so does God.
Face it out to the end, cast away every shadow of hope
on the human side as an absolute hindrance to the Divine,
heap up all the difficulties together recklessly,
and pile as many more on as you can find;
you cannot get beyond the blessed
climax of impossibility.
Let faith swing out to Him.
He is the God of the impossible.
--Selected
STREAMS IN THE DESERT
compiled by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
"For with God nothing shall be impossible" (Luke 1:37).
Far up in the Alpine hollows, year by year
God works one of His marvels.
The snow-patches lie there,
frozen with ice at their edge
from the strife of sunny days and frosty nights;
and through that ice-crust come,
unscathed, flowers that bloom.
Back in the days of the by-gone summer,
the little soldanelle plant spread its leaves
wide and flat on the ground,
to drink in the sun-rays,
and it kept them stored in
the root through the winter.
Then spring came, and stirred the
pulses even below the snow-shroud,
and as it sprouted, warmth was given out
in such strange measure that it thawed a
little dome in the snow above its head.
Higher and higher it grew and always
above it rose the bell of air,
till the flower-bud formed safely within it:
and at last the icy covering of the air-bell
gave way and let the blossom through into the
sunshine,
the crystalline texture of its mauve
petals sparkling like snow itself as if it bore
the traces of the flight through which it had come.
And the fragile thing rings an echo in our hearts
that none of the jewel-like flowers nestled in the
warm turf on the slopes below could waken.
We love to see the impossible done. And so does God.
Face it out to the end, cast away every shadow of hope
on the human side as an absolute hindrance to the Divine,
heap up all the difficulties together recklessly,
and pile as many more on as you can find;
you cannot get beyond the blessed
climax of impossibility.
Let faith swing out to Him.
He is the God of the impossible.
--Selected
STREAMS IN THE DESERT
compiled by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman