The Brightening Path of Pain - by Martha Snell Nicholson

The Brightening Path of Pain

by Martha Snell Nicholson
[lightly edited]

Everyone needs to work in order to remain normal, and it is such a comfort that none of us are too ill to know the joy of accomplishment, the opportunity to win crowns, sheaves to lay at the feet of the Lord of the harvest. Years ago I was reading the Bible to a little boy of nine who had recently given his heart to Christ. He had had no Christian upbringing and thus the truth of the Word of God was new to him. I found that he caught the marvel of it in a way that shamed me at times. I was explaining about the five kinds of rewards, and read to him the verse, “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness...” [2 Tim. 4:8]

His eyes grew bigger and bigger, and at last he fairly gasped, “Oh, are there going to be crowns too? I should think it would be enough just to save our souls!”

There is so much we who are the Lord’s can do. I have long had the habit of praying for those whose stories of sin and sorrow are spread all over the pages of our newspapers, even for the murderers awaiting execution. And, of course, I pray for all Christian work and workers everywhere.

Then there is that very quiet work of grace. All summer I have thrilled to a miracle in our back yard. We had a sapling fig tree, only knee high. We poured on the water, and it drank it in and spread its little branches to catch the sunshine. I took such pride in it and would stroke its straight strong trunk and limbs so unlike my twisted body. It grew so quietly, never a sound nor a stir, yet now it is six feet tall, and this fall gave us largess of gifts, great fat figs bursting with their own sweetness. So we, on quiet beds of pain, may drink in His Word, and open our hearts to His Holy Spirit until we too bear fruit.

It is such a blessing to know that God makes no mistakes, that this illness is not something that just happened to me. “Shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He hath no understanding?” [Is. 29:16]  No, the enduring is mine, to be sure, but the responsibility for it is entirely His, and what a difference that makes! Nothing can even touch the child of God without His permissive will. It is not necessary for me to know the reasons, for they are safe with our dear Lord, “in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” [Col. 2:2-3]

I am no wise theologian, but I have thought that surely God will be glad when this is all over and He will no longer have to watch His children suffer, when all tears will be wiped from our eyes, and a song put upon our lips. Until then cannot we “endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” [2 Tim. 2:3] and spare Him the sound of our wailing?

Evening Song - God Will Take Care of You

1 Peter 5:6-7 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. 

Psalm 23:1-6 A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. 

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Tennessee Memories - Early Summer Reds

Springtime Walk In the Dowagiac Woods, Michigan

Dutchman's Breeches
Photo property of Plants Amaze Me.

Another great post from "Plants Amaze Me" of her adventures in the Michigan woods. These pictures make me just a little homesick for Michigan in the spring. Especially this dry year in Texas. (But, to be clear, I do not miss the winters up there!) :-) These photos are from the end of April, so they are past this point, but I still wanted to share.

Dowagiac Woods Nature Sanctuary

Enjoy! And leave her a kind message maybe.

Thoughts from the Past - A Sun and Shield

 

I wrote this post shortly after we moved to Texas before my husband and I were married. We are experiencing a drought and fairly hot weather now too, and it isn't even July yet.

July 20, 2008 [edited 2022]

A Sun and Shield

Hot, hot, hot! Welcome to Texas. The land of heat, wasps and dead grass - well, at least it is this year since this area is presently having a bit of a drought.

Today I was walking down from my future house to the house of my brother and sister-in-law where I'm presently staying. The two places are next door and connected by a longish driveway which makes a great path for walking between them. There is more or less sunshine on this driveway depending on where the sun is in the sky, and since the sun is so hot here right now I generally try to walk in the shade as much as possible. Some people might wonder at my apparently erratic course when I'm walking between the two places because I don't follow the shortest distance between two points, but the shortest distance between two shadows. So, I tend to zigzag somewhat on my journey.

This afternoon the temperature here was apparently hovering around 100F when I made the trip down that path. I could actually feel the change in the temperature when I walked out of the sun into the shade, there was that much difference between them. In thinking about that it brought a verse to mind, and other thoughts as well.

I looked up the part of the verse I thought of and here is the passage it comes from - Isaiah 32:1-2 Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

I believe this is probably speaking of the Lord Jesus in the Messianic sense. He is a man who is a hiding place and so forth. He is also a shadow of a great rock in a weary land. In 1 Corinthians 10:4 the Rock that provided the Israelites water in the wilderness is identified as Christ Himself: And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. On a day like this I can appreciate these thoughts. It truly is a weary land here today - one that makes us long for shade and refreshment. If you had to spend much time out in this heat it would make you tired. It would make some of us very tired.

I also think of this verse: Psalm  84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

The Lord is both a sun and a shield because at different times we need both. Sunshine is very necessary to me in dealing with the anxiety disorder that I have. In the winter time in Tennessee it was not uncommon for me to struggle through days when the sun didn't shine and I could not get this important ingredient, especially if there were several cloudy days together. The sun's rays supply us with vitamin D and probably other things that are essential to our health both physically and mentally/emotionally.

In that respect, the Lord is a sun to us. He supplies us with necessary things that we need to keep us healthy spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically. As it says in Malachi 4:2, But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. The Lord, in the role of providing spiritual sun for us provides us with the growth and health that we so much need.  The idea behind a calf of the stall is that it never wants for anything.

But, thank God that He is also a shield! He does not burn us up with His strength, glory and power as the physical sun would if we were subjected to too much of it. The Lord provides protection and comfort as well as light and growth. The shadow of a great rock, a covert in the tempest, water in a dry place, a hiding place from the wind - these are all things that represent protection and comfort for the weary and struggling. What a blessing that when the way is too long, the struggle too hard, the heat too great we can step into the shield of the Lord and find protection and a time of rest and refreshing!

Beneath the cross of Jesus I fain would take my stand,
The shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land;
A home within the wilderness, a rest upon the way,
From the burning of the noontide heat, and the burden of the day...

I take, O cross, thy shadow for my abiding place;
I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of His face;
Content to let the world go by to know no gain or loss,
My sinful self my only shame, my glory all the cross.

Elizabeth C. Clephane

Psalms 91:1-4 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

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Photo by Glenn Hoover, my grandfather. Taken in East Africa.

Evening Song - Beneath the Cross of Jesus

Psalm 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. 

Isaiah 32:2 And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. 

Galatians 6:14 But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. 

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The Thousand Word Project - Spring Evening.