Saturday, April 1, 2017
IT IS FINISHED
A poet known as "The Cripple" once wrote:
Dear God, though every shining door of life
Be ever closed 'gainst my infirmity,
I know one portal standeth wide
When I have reached the margin of earth's strife.
And this I pray, that if I languished here,
Tortured in flesh, and mocked of mine own soul,
That there, my spirit and my body whole,
I shall find work, and finding, hold it dear.
O give me, as life's recompense, to bring
My new-found strength within Thy vineyard fair!
I have so longed for work. God, let me bear
Its stress and strain, my offering to my King.
If we met that poet, we might say, "Work? Why in heaven we shall rest from our labors." Or we might remind the poet that there is much to be done right now, for "the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much" (James 5:16). As long as your heart beats and your brain thinks, you can pray for all people, for your fellow-believers, for your congregation, for attendance on the Word of Grace, for all those who are so busy using their mind and body whole, that they think they don't have time to pray. Yes, pray for us! If your heart is praying, whatever limb or voice you may have that still functions will find the opportunity which the Lord puts in front of it.
But how shall we answer that spirit of cheerful giving? Our Lord completed our Salvation with crippled hands and feet, looking to the resurrection. Would it not be wonderful if we, also looking forward to the resurrection, might even now have some way to show our love to Him who loved us and gave Himself for us, if we might even now have some work to do, some stress to bear, some strain to endure, our offering to our King?!
