God Knows

Smithers and I are facing this coming year with some trepidation, unsure of the new roles we have been forced to adopt. I am finding it quite daunting to be the sole driver, and Smithers is having to come to terms with the reduction of his sight and his consequent loss of independence. We are struggling a bit to adapt to all this and I confess it’s hard to keep motivated at times. However, I managed to drive us to Roding Valley Meadows this afternoon, with our walking boots in the boot, and we had an enjoyable half hour walk. It was fairly muddy underfoot, but the majority of the paths were actually the remnants of the old airfield so there was concrete underneath, making it easier going.

The earlier patches of blue sky had disappeared by the time we got out, but just to breathe deeply in the fresh air, and see (and hear) the seagulls wheeling high in the sky above us, and many different birds singing all around us, was a real treat. There wasn’t much colour to photograph, but I always love the sight of an open gate. 

This familiar poem really sums everything up for me. Minnie Louise Haskins became a missionary in India with the Wesleyan Missionary Society and this poem, "God Knows", originally written in 1908, was published in 1912 but with the addition of the preamble. This latter, of course, was made famous by King George VI in his 1939 Christmas Message at the beginning of WWII. The 13-year old Princess Elizabeth, as she then was, handed the poem to her father and through his quoting of that preamble it became well-known throughout the country, and given its unofficial title of "The Gate of the Year".

'God Knows'

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
"Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown".
And he replied:
"Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way".
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.
And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

So heart be still:
What need our little life
Our human life to know,
If God hath comprehension?
In all the dizzy strife
Of things both high and low,
God hideth His intention.

God knows. His will
Is best. The stretch of years
Which wind ahead, so dim
To our imperfect vision,
Are clear to God. Our fears
Are premature; In Him,
All time hath full provision.

Then rest: until
God moves to lift the veil
From our impatient eyes,
When, as the sweeter features
Of Life's stern face we hail,
Fair beyond all surmise
God's thought around His creatures
Our mind shall fill.

Minnie Louise Haskins (1875-1957)