Growth


I stood the children, straight and tall,

By last year’s marks upon the wall.

Another year! How soon they go,

And see how fast the children grow!

And then I thought of how God’s Word

Says, “Grow in grace, and in the Lord.”

And as I knelt with God alone

He asked me gently, “Have you grown?

Can you look back and understand

How sun and rain came form My hand?

The trials which My love decreed,

Did they not prove Me real indeed?

Or would you change a single hour

And miss the knowledge of My power?

Do I seem nearer when you pray

Than just a year ago today?

And does your zeal for lost men die,

Or greater grow, as years go by?”

What deep and searching questions these!

They kept me long upon my knees;

Before His gaze my soul must own

How very little it had grown.

Dear Lord, this year may all men see

That I grow daily more like Thee.


By Barbara C. Ryberg