The Works of God

We’ve added to our family (see picture below if you’re interested).

The day we brought her home I was reminded of a time when Pastor John referenced his own dog and the new earth. I couldn’t remember exactly what the reference was or when or even the context (sermon? conference message? book?). Thankfully, desiringGod.org has a helpful search engine and I found it in about a minute.

It was from an Advent poem in 1985!

And as I knelt beside the brook
To drink eternal life, I took
A glance across the golden grass,
And saw my dog, old Blackie, fast
As she could come. She leaped the stream-
Almost-and what a happy gleam
Was in her eye.

And there was so much more I had forgotten:

The blind can see a bird on wing,
The dumb can lift his voice and sing.
The diabetic eats at will,
The coronary runs uphill.
The lame can walk, the deaf can hear,
The cancer-ridden bone is clear.
Arthritic joints are lithe and free,
And every pain has ceased to be.
And every sorrow deep within,
And every trace of lingering sin
Is gone. And all that’s left is joy,
And endless ages to employ
The mind and heart to understand
And love the sovereign Lord who planned
That it should take eternity
To lavish all his grace on me.

Glorified by Pastor John Piper, December 22, 1985

This was ten years before Paul was born and 19 years before Dianne’s cancer was diagnosed. The references to disability and disease obviously had no impact on me at the time. Oh, how I wish they had; 1995 might have been so much different for me.

But God had a different path for us in 1995, and I’m delighted to rediscover this powerful, sobering, joyful poem these years later. Please read the entire poem at the link above. It is not what you are expecting.

And I am not at all surprised that God would use a little dog to bring him glory!