The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
(a repeat from 2021, and one of my favorite poems at the conclusion.)
"The Miner"
In every field, the vast preponderance of work and accomplishment occurs through people who receive little or no notoriety for their efforts and sacrifice. This reflects the reality of the greatest of all Laborers, present and active in all things, but whose doings are largely unknown to even the most godly among us.
"I cannot see Him" (Job 23:9).
My son and I discussed this truth the other day, which led me to my mention that I never pass by a jewelry store without thinking about the ones most important to its success. The miner who labors in the darkness and danger of subterranean environments bears most credit for the precious items that brightly glimmer in jewelry store displays. His toil and risk in the heart of the earth make possible our beholding the loveliness of the ring, the glimmer of the necklace, the beauty of the bracelet. However, few remember the miner, without whom the most sublime jewels would remain hidden in the earth.
God Himself serves as the greatest of all miners, and of those who get the work done. The One who made all things quietly maintains the existence of all things, "upholding all things by the word of His power" (Proverbs 16:3; Hebrews 1:3). All creation teems with His presence, involvement, and vibrant activity. Every atom hearkens to His sustaining and empowering voice. Every creature requires His provision of "life and breath and all things." All "live and move and have their being" in the Source and supply of their existence. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights" (Acts 17:25-28; James 1:17). We would be nothing and have nothing apart from this Miner. However, few give Him credence or credit. Only those who know Him in the light of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Scriptures have eyes to view the "wonders without number" He performs (Job 9:10). And we see so very little.
This truth applies to all human endeavor. The God who labors continually with so little notice has made a world in which those who do the most receive the least attention and reward. Thus, we do well to appreciate the miner (and all like him) as the expression of remembering and appreciating the Miner. Thereby we gratefully open our eyes to the labors of people, and even more, to the labors of our Lord.
"For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honorable, but we are despised. Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace; and labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it, being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day" (I Corinthians 4:9-13).
The Consecration - John Masefield
Not of the princes and prelates with periwigged charioteers
Riding triumphantly laurelled to lap the fat of the years,—
Rather the scorned — the rejected — the men hemmed in with the spears;
The men of the tattered battalion which fights till it dies,
Dazed with the dust of the battle, the din and the cries.
The men with the broken heads and the blood running into their eyes.
Not the be-medalled Commander, beloved of the throne,
Riding cock-horse to parade when the bugles are blown,
But the lads who carried the koppie and cannot be known.
Not the ruler for me, but the ranker, the tramp of the road,
The slave with the sack on his shoulders pricked on with the goad,
The man with too weighty a burden, too weary a load.
The sailor, the stoker of steamers, the man with the clout,
The chantyman bent at the halliards putting a tune to the shout,
The drowsy man at the wheel and the tired look-out.
Others may sing of the wine and the wealth and the mirth,
The portly presence of potentates goodly in girth;—
Mine be the dirt and the dross, the dust and scum of the earth!
Theirs be the music, the color, the glory, the gold;
Mine be a handful of ashes, a mouthful of mold.
Of the maimed, of the halt and the blind in the rain and the cold—
Of these shall my songs be fashioned, my tales be told.
"Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not!"
(Genesis 28:16)
"God… worketh all things after the counsel of His own will."
(Ephesians 1:3; 11)
"I will look for Him."
(Isaiah 8:17)
Weekly Memory Verse
That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.
(Luke 16:15)
6803
No comments:
Post a Comment