by Joni
"Your eyes will see the King in his beauty
and view a land that stretches afar."
Isaiah 33:17
My favorite paintings and poems are about fields. Perhaps it's because my favorite childhood memories are of running through the huge alfalfa field across the dirt road from our farmhouse. The field was broad and rolling and uncluttered by bushes or trees. I loved to ride my pony across it, especially when the wind would whip thunderheads over its horizon. Its wide expanse made me feel so small, as if the entire alfalfa field could fit into my heart.
Do you recall the feeling of wide-open freedom? Summery, blustery days spent by an open field will do it to you. So will this poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning:
The little cares which fretted me
I lost them yesterday,
Among the fields, above the sea,
Among the winds at play,
Among the lowing of the herds,
The rustling of the trees,
Among the singing of the birds,
The humming of the bees.
The foolish fear of what might happen,
I cast them all away
Among the clover-scented grass,
Among the husking of the corn,
Where drowsy poppies nod
Where ill thoughts die and good are born-
Out in the fields with God.
_________________________________
Pack a picnic this weekend and ask a friend to join you for a jaunt to the country. Find a country road, look for a large field, pull over to the side, and spread your blanket under the shade of a tree (Ken and I did that last summer and ended up inviting a passerby to lunch). Let the sun and the wind and the field -- the bigger the field, the better -- remind you of the wide-opened spaciousness, the broad big freedom we have in Christ.
I see You, the King in all Your beauty, and heaven, like a land stretching afar. Thank You for such a bright, happy perspective today.
Blessings,
Joni and Friends
Compiled by: Grant, Myrna Reid, Poems for a good and happy life CrossAmerica Books, Garden City, New York, USA, 1997, p.158)
Taken from More Precious Than Silver. Copyright © 1998 by Joni Eareckson Tada.
Posts
