The Way of Life

Honey, we cannot force the road that leads through circumstance

Nor rearrange the love songs written in its bitter gale

The way of life is not a highway flung from fate or chance

But ever runs through fingers of a Hand that will not fail

Who knows what lies beyond the blush of morning’s waking hour?

The paradise of fortune is a fragile house of sand

The way of life will dip and curve through thorny field and flower

Beneath its winding Unknown spreads love’s faithful nail-scarred Hand

How hard would be this journey but for hope beyond the grave

How putrid were life’s prize if at death’s door it fell away

The way of life unfolds and we its offering must brave

But ever still a higher Hand cradles both gold and gray

Uncertainty is Wisdom’s gift that draws our boast to prayer

Honey, we cannot sidestep or desist the miles to come

The way of life is not a footloose free-fall to nowhere

But leads to where we’ll touch the Hands that led us safely Home

© Janet Martin

 Thus says the Lord: Stand by the roads and look; and ask for the eternal paths, where the good, old way is; then walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls...Jer.6:16