"Oh Lord, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name; for You have worked wonders, plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness" Isaiah 25:1. When my eyes landed upon this verse, it was as if I'd been taken to that rock which is higher (Ps. 61), and was staring out upon a land whose labyrinthine burrows were perfectly articulate and lead in every way to the most suitable ground. The views were clear up there, and one could not help but arch in every way to be nearer the Son. The hedges looked dreadfully small and the blooms seemed ever so few. Beneath the burgeoning blossoms beamed hundreds of crystalline flecks that lined the paths. Few of the pristine pieces dwarfed their companions, and it was translated at once that they were those "of whom the world was not worthy" (Heb. 11:38). Happening upon this sight caused me to stumble and fall headlong off the rock and into the hedge. The brambles and branches occluded my eyes with a rivaling intensity, and the swelling unknown seemed to instantly supersede the perspicuity of the previous illumination. Heart palpitations, a sore back and general lethargy lead me nowhere, as I sat reeling in my mind, and fumbled to hold onto that great Rock of Ages.

Unknown at the time, the gems in the maze were the lives of refracted glory that had shone from the Son. Their splendor contrasted the others, for their luster was unfaded, and at once it was known that their form was actualized by their entrusting of themselves to the master hewer of the soul. The unfurling hedge about them encased them sovereignly in the plan formed long ago. At times the light on it was dim, and the pressures great. The circumstances enclosing them tempted dismay and doubt, but the vision of those with love refined saw beyond the portal of this earth, and into the eyes of whom we have to do (Heb. 4:13). "And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." The pressures became to them agents of transformation which faithfully transposed the natural into something transcendent, which thus reflected the object of their adoration.

The Bible implores us not to think lightly of our weaknesses, but rather to boast in them, so that the power of God might be perfected therein. The gaze of the Lord is drawn to the humble, and His strength is waiting to shine forth from the cracks in our vessel. When I fell headlong, my eyes had focused themselves on the insurmountable odds that stood between the desires of my heart, and the weakness of my frame; my sights were not on the Giver, but on the meanness of the recipient. One ought only to compare himself with His Maker, for therein he is humbled, restrained, broken, and remade into the very image of which he was created to be. We must savor these truths, and hold them long until their color imbues our character, and their essence wafts from our being, leaving eternal perfume on all that we touch and embrace.