THE VALLEY OF VISION
By Erwin Bourne
“It is a day of trouble…in the valley of vision”
(Isaiah 22:6)
In this section of “Somebodycares4u,” is THE MESSAGE
OF ENCOURAGEMENT written by Vern’s brother, a
missionary on the Amazon. Vern has a prayer group who
pray for the new converts, and for other requests. I
have a very special prayer request. It is for Glenda
Kempa, a missionary at Sucre, Bolivia. The report I
just received begins: “The news about Glenda is not
encouraging. She has a large clot in the artery from
heart to lung which has almost cut off the supply of
blood causing the blood to back up into the right
chamber of her heart.” Please pray for Glenda.
The piece I am submitting for today is a poem/prose
written by this author back in April, 1991. We are
not always on the mountaintop. Sometimes we’re in the
valley. We see a different world when in the valley.
But we can look up! Please study this piece, THE
VALLEY OF VISION.
I have loved the great wilderness of earth:
Which to me means wildness—
Wildness in a very wholesome and pure sense.
Yet, this is a very determinedly independent spirit!
Like the storm, the raw elements,
Like the great pristine land itself!
I have viewed vast panoramas from the cordilleras—
The backbone of continents!
I have crossed the immense Arctic Brooks Range.
Seen much of the western and Canadian Rockies,
In Mexico, traveled the tortured topography
Of the South Madres;
And then, on to the top of the world
In the Andes Mountains of Peru, South America.
Now I am seeing a very different world:
A world—my world—from the valley’s depth.
I am not gazing down on the valleys below.
Or across the Grand Canyons of the Earth;
I am seeing from within the valley itself.
There is no need to look down, for I am on the bottom,
Though there are times this great depression
Bows my head, and sore tempts my heart.
Here, I must look up! To a vision far-reaching,
More promising than ever seen from lofty heights.
Here, am I still the conqueror as when on the summits?
Yes! But in a very quiet submission. A surrender.
An increasing sympathy for the troubled world.
How does life appear from a wheel chair?
From a hospital bed? From the pits of life?
I have from here a very narrow spectrum—
Of suffering bodies, troubled minds and heavy spirits.
But, also, I have a far-distant view above me,
To where promises are secured and faith is anchored.
The view from here is forever!
Far as the heavens are above the earth.
So are God’s ways higher than my ways.
And God’s thoughts than my thoughts (Isaiah 55:9).
I can see from here, great purpose in God’s creation;
And I have learned to love the Creator more than all!
Lord God, help me to comprehend, so I may help others—
To see the foreverness of life, and together,
Come to triumph in the
troubled valley of vision!
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So fix your eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 5:17-18
Erwin Bourne
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