This poem was written by and sent to us from J.B. Nicholson, Jr. I hope it brings encouragement to you as it did to us in that difficult time. Thinking back on all the Lord has done, we are in awe each day and glory in His love and grace toward us.
Things Unseen
Exodus 4:11; Isaiah 35:5; Hebrews 11:1
A little bird that cannot sing, a flower locked in the bud;
A star unseen by human eyes, or love lost in life’s flood;
A day whose glorious sun is hid behind the sullen cloud;
A child who never runs and plays, who never shouts aloud.
Is God Creator of the most, but Maker not of all?
Is His supremacy somehow suspended by the Fall?
Did your sweet child slip through His grasp when floating down to earth,
And was his coming to your home an accident of birth?
What happened at the moment when your Joshua was born,
When human dreams and human plans from human hearts were torn?
Could God not reach him—He who measures heaven with a span?
Or did chance blindly interfere with His eternal plan?
God’s Word, so full of mysteries, is more mysterious still
When Moses felt himself unfit to do the Master’s will:
“Who makes the dumb, or deaf,... or blind? have not I?” says the Lord,
And faith gasps in amazement at this o’erwhelming word.
Was this a part of heaven’s plan? Are these words really true?
Were you prepared for your dear child and he prepared for you?
Did angels watch when he appeared, as special grace was given?
A special gift, a moment here and then returned to heaven!
The story isn’t told, of course, until God speaks again,
For Isaiah sings millennial songs and heaven’s eternal strain
About a land where lame men leap and muted voices sing,
When sorrow, sighing, flee away in the presence of the King.
Then the lips that never uttered a wrong or misspent word,
Then the feet that never faltered or wandered from the road,
Then shall they—preserved by Jesus—sing His everlasting praise,
And they all shall walk beside Him throughout heaven’s unbroken days.
And you shall see him running, running and never tire,
And you shall hear him singing in heaven’s majestic choir;
There you and he together will celebrate His grace
And understand His purpose when at last we “see His face.”
