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The Preacher's Wife
Comments and Poems By Ruth R. Martin |
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I grew up near Wilson Dam in North Alabama and when I was a child it was a thrill when my Daddy would drive us to the dam when all the spillways were open. People from all around would gather to watch. It was like a small Niagara when the unleashed water boiled foaming out of the spillways all across the wide Tennessee River. It was an awesome and not too often seen sight and the sound was a deafening roar that drowned out speech. At other times it was a very pleasant, peaceful scene with only a few controlled spillways open.
Years later I saw the REAL Niagara in all it's indescribable power, majesty and beauty. It was overwhelming, the continual roar of the mighty Falls silenced all attempts at conversation. How small we mere humans felt before such wild, uncontrolled force. Beautiful, yes, wonderful to see, yes, a sight never to be forgotten, yes, but we seemed so tiny, so insignificant, standing, gazing up at that curtain of power.. How like God's Heavenly Spillways that He opens and closes at will. He Who holds worlds in His finger-tips; He Who speaks breath into every living creature; He Who controls the winds and waves; He Who hangs stars, and planets, and constellations in space; it is to This One that we take our petitions and prayers. Aware of this, we often go timidly into into His Presence with sometimes skimpy Hope, shaky Faith and trembling Prayer and whisper, "Father---" and stammer out our need to Him. Our Heavenly Father bends, listens intently and says. "Believe. Trust Me." And so we bow there, quaking inside. Sighing, He says, "Child, look!" and SUDDENLY He opens the Spillways of Heaven and we are FLOODED by the torrents of Joy, Peace, Love, and all and more than we asked for ..And we stand awe-struck before His throne at the wondrous outpouring of His Grace...and all we did was come timidly and ..ASK. We give Him our "little faith"--our five loaves and two fishes, and He turns them into a feast. We cry out like that Biblical father, "Lord, I believe! Help Thou mine unbelief!", and He ACCEPTS our little faith, our weak trust and performs a marvelous miracle---time after time after time. His great pleasure is to shower us with rich blessings; all that stands in the way is our own closed heart. He sweetly says, "Ask and it shall be given you" I wrote a little poem some years ago--I imagined a hot, summer day and we sit on the porch, hot, thirsty and tired. Suddenly, the Lord stands there, invitingly holding a beautiful silver pitcher filled to the brim and overflowing with refreshing ice-cold lemonade or iced- tea, so cold the pitcher is frosty on the outside and little trickles of water drip down the sides. Ah, it looks so good, so refreshing and we sit there, glasses in our hands, licking our parched lips...and refuse to raise our empty glasses for Him to fill. 
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