When it rains, it pours!

"Strengthened with all might unto all patience" (Col. i. 11).

Just a couple days ago I was presenting a God's Love program "Seeds of Love" from the "Seeds for Christ" series at Father Baker Manor. After the program was over and I was visiting with the residents I came to this younger woman, younger than me for sure, who is confined to a bed chair. Her body has given up on her. My friends as I was reading the devotional by A. B. Simpson and also the poem by Eben E. Rexford below I was pondering on the words "patience and long-suffering." This young woman and so many others of "God's Wounded", I pray they can understand their long-suffering that they are enduring on this earth. Interesting as A. B. Simpson writes about it as a earthly lesson to be learned, for it will not be in Heaven. Through this young woman's anguish she gave me a big smile that made my day.

[A devotional by A. B. Simpson]

[The apostle prays for the Colossians, that they may be "strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness." It is one thing to endure and show the strain on every muscle of your face, and seem to say with every wrinkle, "Why does not somebody sympathize with me?" It is another to endure the cross, "despising the shame" for the joy set before us.

There are some trees in the garden of the Lord which "shall not see when heat cometh"; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, nor cease from yielding fruit. Let us set our faces toward the sunrising and use the clouds that come, to make rainbows. Not much longer shall we have the glorious opportunity to rejoice in tribulation, and learn patience. In heaven we shall have nothing to teach long-suffering. If we do not learn it here, we shall be without our brightest crown forever, and wish ourselves back for a little while, in the very circumstances of which we are now trying so hard to get rid.]

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[From a devotional by Mrs. Charles Cowman - Streams in the Desert]

[Last night I heard a robin singing in the rain,
And the raindrop's patter made a sweet refrain,
Making all the sweeter the music of the strain.

So, I thought, when trouble comes, as trouble will,
Why should I stop singing? Just beyond the hill
It may be that sunshine floods the green world still.

He who faces the trouble with a heart of cheer
Makes the burden lighter. If there falls a tear,
Sweeter is the cadence in the song we hear.

I have learned your lesson, bird with dappled wing,
Listening to your music with its lilt of spring
When the storm-cloud darkens, then's the TIME to sing.

--Eben E. Rexford]

From God's heart, to mine, to yours,
Ed Shagott