How Sad the Signs of Life Appear – Graphic Print

COMMENTARY

This poem came in the fall of 1990 at a retreat center near Bardstown, Kentucky.  I am a nature lover and receive many blessings from the beauties of God’s creation, especially during the season changes.  I was shocked one day as I walked with my wife Shirley through a botanical preserve at Bernheim Forest.  The blazing fall colors of the maples, oaks and cherry trees were never as beautiful as that day.  However, as I looked upon this painter’s pallet of colors my heart grew sadder and sadder by the moment.  I knew that something from God was happening. I asked the Lord what was taking place.  In His still, small voice He said, “I have allowed you to feel what my children feel when they don’t want to live any longer.”  As beauty is offered to the wounded and hurting person, it only saddens them due to their inability to focus on anything but their pain.  The promise of experiencing joy or pleasure in the light of intense suffering only causes the person to suffer greater grief. Following this thought, sometimes there are no appropriate words to bring comfort to the hurting person.  We can only go stand with them and shield them from the rain.  What a joy to discover that God has reserved for each of us a measure of His grace and healing love that we might freely give it to those who grieve over their losses.  Contained in these two tiny verses are attempts to comfort the deeply sorrowful people in our own lives.  Sometimes words can have little or no impact on the grieving person.  The wounds are so deep and the person is in such a state of pain that the only comfort is a hand on the shoulder or an embrace in Christ to soothe our deepest pain.  Sometimes our ministry to the needy is to position ourselves in their lives so that we can by some means shield them from the rain. (Shade them from the adversities of life by which they are attacked).

NOTE: This poem is one of many found in the collection Jewels from His Crown