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