Tuesday, August 9, 2016

"As I grow older": a reflection based on a passage from Brother Lawrence's "Practice of the Presence of God"


"...In the winter, seeing a tree stripped of its leaves, and considering that within a little time, the leaves would be renewed, and after that the flowers and fruit appear, he received a high view of the Providence and Power of GOD, which has never since been effaced from his soul.”--Brother Lawrence, writing of his conversion experience at age 18 in a book entitled “Practicing the Presence of God.”




As I grow older
I must grow simpler

like a branch stripped of leaves
by indifferent winds

until I can see quite clearly
as Brother Lawrence did

on that frozen day in March
when You revealed Your presence

not in fire, but in ice,
not in glory, but in a leafless tree

Your Word made
all too fragile flesh

quaking and thankful
just to be alive.

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