
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Psalm 46:1
Two tall mountain pines Seen standing on a rock Broken and battered Shaken by the strong winds The tallest of trees With its thick grounding-roots Weaves its way through the dirt Wrapping around the least Resolute to stand Through the powerful gusts The taller, more wounded Keeps the lesser tall It's the Blessed One Seen standing through darkness Rooting to the rock The torn and ragged pine So will be the Called On the mountain of life Found steadfast and strong Fixed and never alone
my inspiration
I have seen a picture of two stone-pines, on the rocky face of a mountain, so torn and ragged from the powerful gusts of wind and yet so resolutely rooted. A broken tree is not beautiful, but it shows us – God’s “children in the dark storm” – which man or woman will stand, unshaken, in the morning…
It is the Blessed One, and no other, who stands by us on the lonely mountain when the dark storm descends. (O my Lord, if you had not suffered, how could you help me in suffering now?) And He who suffered and overcame will grant us also to overcome.
I can think of no truer picture of what we want to be when the wind beats on us for the last time: like that lone, mountain pine, broken and battered perhaps, but not uprooted! We can stand, today and always, steadfast, undefeated. And never alone.
Amy Carmichael, Gold by Moonlight, pp. 175-176.
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