This Side Of Glory Poem by Peter Eliastam

Shall we, this side of glory ever know
What each appointed trial here below
Accomplishes in us through chastening?
Love guards our crucibles, unhastening.

Shall we, beset by doubts and unbelief,
Here comprehend how Christ can lift our grief?
The end will show, although the course is long,
How He, out of our weakness makes us strong.

Shall sense explain the reasons for our tears?
Our hopes belong to Him. So do our fears.
No circumstance is able to displace
A single refugee in His embrace.

Shall we, when in our worst extremity,
Compare our pain to His Gethsemane,
Without remembering how on His cross,
He bore its cause, transfiguring our loss?

Shall we, when faced with death’s contingencies,
Conclude that Christ can not control emergencies?
That microcosmic needs elude His care?
Do our afflictions catch Him unaware?

Shall He, in whom despair can not exist,
Be powerless to help us to resist
The dark erosions of the aching heart,
In deepest disappointments torn apart?

And when it seems impossible to plumb
The protocols of prayer, and tongues are dumb,
Then He is everywhere our Advocate
And Spokesman, even when it seems too late.

Our goal is God, whatever blurs the view.
He cannot break His word or be untrue.
Were He to fail; all life would cease to be.
Christ is our Guarantor and Guarantee.