Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Season(s) of a year or life (01/13/11)
-
TITLE: Yesterday | Previous Challenge Entry
By Margaret Kearley
01/19/11 -
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES
(Genesis 37-45)
Was it only yesterday I sang as I walked,
As I passed through the valleys, then halted and talked
To a friendly bystander to ask him the way?
Was it only yesterday, only a day?
The sun that now beats on my heartache and fear
Shone then in delight from skies beautifully clear.
From freedom to bondage, from life to the grave,
From love, joy and favour, now shackled, a slave.
Was it only yesterday?
(In unfathomable ways that he never could guess,
The Lord was with Joseph and gave him success.)
Was it only yesterday in this foreign land
I ruled a great household with power and command?
Entrusted with all, given full oversight,
Serving God and my master, blameless and upright.
But, unjustly condemned and unfairly confined,
Roughly cast into prison with convicts consigned.
Now again in the darkness of loss and despair,
Just one consolation – I knew God was there.
Was it only yesterday?
(Although prison bars around Joseph did press,
The Lord God was with him and gave him success.)
Was it only yesterday I rose with the sun?
Again, in the prison, a new day begun.
Then, standing ‘fore Pharaoh who trembled with fear,
And speaking the message God planned he should hear.
From prison to palace, from shadows to power,
As the charge of all Egypt was granted that hour.
In the mystery of providence the dark paths I’d trod
Were used to save life by the kindness of God.
Was it only yesterday?
(Though Joseph faced loneliness, darkness and dread,
It was for salvation God sent him ahead.)
It seems only yesterday, not 20 plus years,
That I last saw these faces, through veils of tears.
My brothers, my family, my own flesh and blood,
Without recognition before me now stood.
With love and forgiveness, my welcome is free,
They’d paid a hard price for their foul jealousy.
‘It was God who sent me to Egypt, not you -
Come close. I am Joseph. It really is true.’
It seems only yesterday.
(Though waiting is hard, and the end we don’t know,
The clock-hands of God are never set slow.)
And now, in my last years, with praise every day
I recall the mystery of each yesterday.
Though the footsteps of God were not seen in the storm,
He rode on the winds, His great ways to perform.
His path, though unfathomable, leads unto light
And sometimes will travel through darkness and night.
Was it only yesterday, this path that I trod?
It was, I still tread it, it leads unto God.
(Like Joseph, wherever the future may lie
May I lean on His grace all my needs to supply).
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
Accept Jesus as Your Lord and Savior Right Now - CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
