TOGETHER

Perhaps we can be together there,
In that next place
Where bodies are so pure
They pass through planets -

Perhaps there,
Where the light that lighteth the sun
Is kept on all night every night,
And no one watches for morning
Holding the cold off with a candle -

There, perhaps,
Where pain is exchanged
For peace and a memory -

You and I can touch as we pass
And gather in the good of one another.
We can love and give
In whatever loving, giving ways
There finally are.

We still will wish
To be together then, I think.
Perhaps then we shall know how.
Perhaps, even, we shall know why
We cannot be together now.

-  Carol Lynn Pearson

ALWAYS THERE

IF I could catch a rainbow
I would do it just for you
And share with you its beauty
On the days you're feeling blue.

If I could build a mountain
You could call your very own
A place to find serenity
A place to be alone.

If I could take your troubles
I would toss them in the sea
But all these things I'm finding
Are impossible for me.

I cannot build a mountain
Or catch a rainbow fair
But let me be what I know best
A friend that's always there.

- Author unknown

A REFINER AND PURIFIER OF SILVER

 "Some time ago, a few women met in a certain city to study the scriptures. While reading the 3rd Chapter of Malachi, they came upon a remarkable expression in the 3rd Verse: "And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver". One woman proposed to visit a silversmith and report to them on what he said about the subject. She went accordingly, and without telling the object of her errand begged the silversmith to tell her about the process of refining silver. After he had fully described it to her, she asked, "But sir, do you sit while the work of refining is going on?". "Oh yes, Madam", replied the silversmith, "I must sit with my eye steadily fixed on the furnace, for if the time necessary for refining be exceeded in the slightest degree, the silver will be injured". The woman at once saw the beauty, and comfort of the expression, "He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver". God sees it needful to put His children into a furnace; His eye is steadily intent on the work of purifying, and His wisdom and love are both engaged in the best manner for us. Our trials do not come at random, and He will not let us be tested beyond what we can endure. Before she left, the woman asked one final question, "When do you know the process is complete?" "Why, that is quite simple", replied the silversmith. "When I can see my own image in the silver, the refining process is finished".

TO WALK THROUGH THIS NIGHT

Surely this heavy grief I cannot bear -
And yet it will not lift its' weight from me,
Nor can I now reach back to summers where
The days hang warm and ripe in memory.
If by my will I could just sink and die,
I would - a sunless future chills me so!
My small faith quavers, crying to deny,
The very God I prayed, childlike to know.
But death has not been given to me to choose,
And there is no backward path to Eden's gate
And standing numb - or railing - is no use,
No matter how unbearable the weight.
Like Abraham, like Job, like The One Light
To find the dawn I must walk through this night.

- Tamara J. Hinkley