Faith

"I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, 'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown,' and he replied, 'Go out into the darkness and put your hand in the hand of God. That shall be to you better than a light and safer than the known way. " (quoted by the King of England in an Empire Broadcast shortly after World War II began)

This originally came from a poem by Minnie Louise Haskins (1875-1957), who was an American lecturer at the London School of Economics, who wrote only as a hobby. The poem was a favorite of the royal family at that time and is actually engraved on bronze plaques on the entrance to the King George VI Memorial Chapel, Windsor, and was read at the funeral service of the Queen Mother, held at Westminster Abbey on April 9, 2002.

I have always loved the quote and was excited to find the entire poem, "The Gate of the Year".

The Gate of the Year

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year,

'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.'
And he replied, 'Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God.

That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!'

So I went forth and finding the hand of God
Trod gladly into the night.

He led me towards the hills

And the breaking of day in the lone east.

So heart be still!
What need our human life to know if God hath comprehension?
In all the dizzy strife of things both high and low,

God hideth His intention.

If our hands are in the hand of God, we need not know exactly what He is planning, only that we will be led and cared for. Something I need to remember for sure.