January 1st
Read: Isaiah 35
New Year’s Day, 1980, was a respite from the extreme winter weather which we had seen in December. It was a rare day, out of context, warm, almost balmy. I suggested to the two exchange students who were our guests that day that we take a walk up the wooded hill near us. Jens, a West German youth, was an experienced hiker of similar terrain; but Aldo, from a Chilean desert, had never in his life walked through a woods or on a large hill. Although he was a quiet young man, he repeatedly expressed his appreciation for this unexpected opportunity. He noticed many things as we walked which most of us took much for granted. His enjoyment of his experience gave me a fresh look at my familiar wooded hill and inspired the poem which follows.
Here on the hillside the trees tower high,
With arms stretched to arches agape to the sky.
Where green leafy canopy once covered all,
Today there’s no roof on this high-vaulted hall.
Our feet tread a carpet of oak leaves and mast
Of acorns and beech-nuts and moss, clinging fast
To deadfalls and rockpaths in all shades of green,
Where hill falls away to a deep-cleft ravine,
Whence, if we but listen, there comes the soft song
Of the brook to the shale as it hurries along.
A squirrel darts ahead, as some twigs break and snap,
To a woodpecker’s tree with its cascade of sap;
And there in the earth is the print of a ‘coon
Where he searched ‘neath the mast, and the leaves are all strewn
In careless abandon; and there stood a deer;
And there the soft chatter of chipmunk we hear,
For the wind sounds are pent in the north far away,
So their breathing is lost to this rare winter day.
There in that stump hole, kept cold by its shade,
Lie perfect white snowflakes that God’s hands have made.
The air seems much colder the higher we go
‘Til deadfalls and branches are outlined in snow.
We rejoice as each beautiful sight doth appear
In this day out of context that greets this new year.
As we become familiar with our Lord, we sometimes begin to take for granted all His benefits, as I did with the wooded hill. It is a lovely thing to see the Savior afresh through the eyes of a new believer, to recall the wonder of that first moment of feeling truly clean, to be there for their expression of joy and release from the bondage of guilt and helplessness. We may look again at how different is the terrain wherein we walk with Him compared to the desert place from which He brought us. We walk through an area teeming with life, abundant with water to refresh, and shady trees to protect.
Prayer: Help us to see anew, in every day this year, the wonder of Your love for us, dear Lord.
