Beauty & Adversity

“Oyster, Mr. Oyster, strange creature of the sea!

What have you to teach me? What is your lesson, please?”

“Come hither, my child,” said Oyster, “Come and sit by me,

And I will tell you the story of Beauty and Adversity.”

“For into my life God brought a stone, a sand from out of life’s sea,

It was just a little thing, as testings often can be.

Its very presence I abhorred, and said, ‘O God! Why me?’

For it irritated me so, this rock of offence to me.”

“I pleaded, I cried, I begged my God from testing to be free;

In a still small voice His quiet reply, ‘My grace it sufficient for thee.

Be patient, my child,’ He said, ‘for patient you must be

If you are to learn the lesson of Beauty and Adversity.’

“As it became part of my life, a new perspective I did see,

Something in which my sovereign God had a lesson for me,

A lesson I now pass on to you, a lesson from out of life’s sea,

A lesson etched in the sands of time of Beauty and Adversity.”

“That stone of testing remained in my life, and to it I concede

As I yielded to the will of God, a change was wrought in me.

This beautiful pearl, one of great price, this wonderful pearl you see

Once was that sand sent from God to work a wonder in me.”

“So hear, my child, and lean ye well from Oyster’s life story

That testings from our loving God are only meant to be

Things of beauty in your life for all the world to see,

Things of beauty, wrought by God, born of adversity.”

Received from the hand of the Lord!

Roberf F. McNutt