Joy in the Journey 58 - Listening to God until...

For every Christian, listening to the Lord, paying attention to his Word, is not a matter of debate; it's an almost instinctive and delightful bend of the heart to hear our Father's voice.

Until it isn't.

In Acts 22, the apostle Paul is giving a defence of himself to the crowd in Jerusalem, having been rescued from certain death by the Roman commander. He speaks to them of his life history in Judaism and of his conversion on the road to Damascus. The crowd listens to his account and his experience of the risen Jesus quietly, until he speaks of being sent to the nations so that they also might receive grace. At this point they erupt in anger, "Rid the earth of him! He's not fit to live!"

The crowd that heard Paul are clearly not comparable to Christians eager to listen to their Lord and Saviour. But hearing the voice of the Lord can be severely challenging - not because what he has said is indistinct and unclear but because the opposite is true.

Throughout the Christian life the gospel continues to challenge our prior commitments, our predispositions and prejudices, and it undercuts our self-righteousness and self-identification.

For the crowd in Acts 22, that self-identity was as 'most favoured nation' and the other nations as being unworthy of redemption. That is unlikely to be our particular challenge but it can all too easily be the case that our sense of identity is tied too tightly to the particular sub-culture (tribe) we belong to, the particular flavour of 'evangelical' or how we believe that ought to play-out in terms of our politics or other viewpoints. And when that happens, tempers can rise and a sense of outrage is inflamed.

You see this all the time online. But it also happens in person - and our hearts are not immune. The churches of Galatia were not uniquely susceptible to the temptation to bite and devour one another.

And the antidote lies in the very truth that we smart under - the gospel of God. What do we have that we did not receive, and received entirely by grace? Did God's word originate with us or are we the only ones it has reached? Is there anything that counts before him except faith expressing itself through love and the new creation?

What we are, we are by the sheer grace of God. Our standing is entirely 'in Christ', in whom alone our hope is found. As that reality undercuts our pride, it establishes our hearts in grace and works a generosity of spirit that refuses to recognise the dividing walls of hostile tribalism.

So let's go on eagerly listening to our Lord in his Word - the humbling it brings is that we might be further raised into the likeness of our Saviour.

************

In Christ alone my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This Cornerstone, this solid Ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone! – who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe.
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save:
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied –
For every sin on Him was laid;
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious day
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine –
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand:
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.

(Stuart Townend & Keith Getty Copyright © 2001 Thankyou Music)

Joy in the Journey 57 - A glorious throne

Jeremiah 17:9 speaks of "A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning..." - the Lord's seat of honour, established in righteousness and justice. A throne that is for ever and ever; a throne that is set in heaven, commanding a full and proper perspective of all things. A throne that is from the beginning, upon which all creation is founded.

It is this throne that Ezekiel sees in his inaugural vision, a throne of Lapis Lazuli, brilliant in beauty and an appropriate setting for "a figure like that of a man... from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him."

For the beleaguered captives in Babylon to whom Ezekiel's visions were given, this was breath-taking and just the news they needed. The throne had not been vacated; the One whose seat it was remained upon it. As Isaiah's sight of the LORD - "high and exalted and seated on a throne" - had given much-needed perspective in a time of national upheaval so, too, would Ezekiel's. The greatest power belonged to heaven's King, not the pretenders of earth.

In days of crippling insecurity and instability, these are visions of a throne that are thrilling and compelling for us. Where does real power reside? Whose is it and how will it be wielded? The One whose throne is glorious.

But Jeremiah's statement offers us still more. "A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning, is our place of sanctuary." The throne of power and majesty and ineffable glory is also, for us, a place of refuge and safety. Amid the storm that has engulfed us, we have hope and a home with the God who reigns over all.

And to this exalted throne we can come with genuine confidence, for it is "the throne of grace" (Heb. 4:16). Grace reigns! Sin - our sin - has abounded, but grace has super-abounded. There is no power greater and no authority superior. And so we, who are imperfect and soiled, stumbling in the darkness and conscious of the damage we have done, can yet draw near to God with solid assurance. We can ask for the cleansing, healing mercy of our Saviour and find it. We can plead for grace for a world lost in sin, for those we know and love whose lives remain shrouded in darkness. 

We can ask and we can be assured, quieted by his love as we are held in his grace, because "standing at the centre of the throne" is "a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain." The glory witnessed by Ezekiel is at its brightest and most radiant in the face of our blessed Saviour, whose throne of grace is our place of sanctuary.

************

Done is the work that saves,

Once and for ever done;

Finished the righteousness

That clothes the unrighteous one.

The love that blesses us below

Is flowing freely to us now.

The sacrifice is o’er,

The veil is rent in twain,

The mercy-seat is red

With blood of Victim slain;

Why stand we then without, in fear?

The blood divine invites us near.

The gate is open wide;

The new and living way

Is clear and free and bright

With love and peace and day.

Into the holiest now we come,

Our present and our endless home.

Upon the mercy-seat

The High Priest sits within;

The blood is in His hand

Which makes and keeps us clean.

With boldness let us now draw near,

That blood has banished every fear.

Then to the Lamb once slain

Be glory, praise, and power,

Who died and lives again,

Who liveth evermore,

Who loved and washed us in His blood,

Who made us kings and priests to God.

(Horatius Bonar, 1808-89)

Chris Wright on Paul's preaching & teaching re idolatry

Paul's evangelism was uncompromisingly effective but not calculatingly offensive. Paul could speak the truth with grace and respect. He did not have to disparage and demean his listeners in order to display and commend the gospel. We could learn from him.

Comparing Paul's theological argument to Christians in Romans 1 with his evangelistic preaching to pagans recorded in Acts, there is a marked difference of tone, even though there is certainly no clash of fundamental conviction. It is the same theology but in different tones.

• Romans, written to Christians, highlights the wrath of God. Acts in recording speeches made to pagans, highlights God's kindness, providence, and patience. Both, however, do explicitly insist on God's judgement.
• Romans portrays idolatry as fundamentally rebellion and suppression of the truth. Acts portrays it as ignorance.
• Romans portrays the wickedness that idolatry spawns. Acts portrays idolatry as "worthless".
• Romans points out how perverted the idolater's thinking has to be. Acts points out how absurd it is when you stop and think about it.
• Paul could excoriate idolatry as "a lie" before Christian readers but did not blaspheme Artemis before her pagan worshippers.

So there is a difference in tone and tactic in Paul's confrontation with idolatry depending on the context of his argument. However, we should be clear that in both cases, he is building all he has to say on very solid scriptural foundations, for every one of the points mentioned above, even though they have differing and balancing emphases, can be related to the Old Testament rhetoric against idolatry, as we have seen. It is particularly noteworthy that, although Paul nowhere quotes the Old Testament in his evangelistic preaching among Gentiles (as he so profusely does when speaking among Jews in synagogues), the content of his message is thoroughly grounded in, and plainly proclaims, the monotheistic creational faith of Israel.

Chris Wright, Here are your Gods, pp.55f

Joy in the Journey (56) - Being fed morning and evening

The account of Elijah by the brook in 1 Kings 17:2-6 is deeply moving. In a time of drought and distress, with the nation under the severest judgement because of the sins of the King and the people's capitulation to his idolatry, Elijah obeys the Lord's word and hides in the Kerith Ravine. He is a wanted man and in great danger, but the Lord has said he will shield him; Elijah is to drink from the brook and will be fed, morning and evening, at God's instruction, by ravens.

A demanding, fraught time in Elijah's life history is undergirded by the faithfulness of the living God, the waters of the brook a foreshadowing of the springs of living water that the Lord Jesus was to say would flow from within all who believed in him (Jn. 7:38), in the gift of the Spirit to all God's people. And every morning and every evening he would be fed, a pattern that has rich scriptural allusions:

The God he serves is the Creator of all things in heaven and on earth, the sole giver and sustainer of life, the one whose creative word declared, "And there was evening and there was morning". Elijah is fed by the One who knows his every breath, his every fear and his every weakness, his loving Maker. And ours too.

The God who made provision in the Law for morning and evening sacrifices. A reminder to Elijah of better times past and to come, of the abiding truth of God and the centrality of sacrifice. In barren days, secluded and isolated, Elijah was fed and nourished by the settled ways of God and his mercies. Worship remained; confessing his sins and knowing the Lord's forgiveness remained, each meal a taste of tender grace.

But these daily mealtimes also had a raw edge to them: ravens were unclean birds and the food they delivered would be ritually contaminated. No doubt this was hard for Elijah to swallow. And yet, the insight they offer is profound: one day, Elijah's people would be faced with a more perplexing call, to "eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood," without which there could be no forgiveness of sin and no sharing in eternal life (Jn. 6:35-59) - the eating and drinking of believing in Jesus as the Messiah, as sent by the one the Father, as the Son of God "who loved me and gave himself for me".

Our privilege, in these darkening days, is to be fed daily and to feed, morning and evening, on the Living Bread who gave himself for the life of the world, whose self-giving is real food and real drink, able to shelter and sustain, to give hope in the darkest hours.

The ways of God can still seem strange to us; we do well to "judge not the Lord by feeble sense". But they are ways filled with the light of an endless morning.

************

Almighty Father of mankind,
On Thee my hopes remain;
And when the day of trouble comes,
I shall not trust in vain.

In early days Thou was my guide,
And of my youth the Friend:
And as my days began with Thee,
With Thee my days shall end.

I know the power in whom I trust,
The arm on which I lean;
He will me Saviour ever be,
Who has my Saviour been.

My God, who causedst me to hope,
When life began to beat,
And when a stranger in the world,
Didst guide my wandering feet;

Thou wilt not cast me off when age
And evil days descend!
Thou wilt not leave me in despair,
To mourn my latter end.

Therefore in life I'll trust to Thee,
In death I will adore,
And after death I'll sing Thy praise,
When time shall be no more.

(Michael Bruce, 1746-67)

Joy in the Journey (55) - Are you envious because I'm generous?

The generosity of God in the gospel of his Son is astonishingly deep. It moves our hearts to humbled worship and Spirit-given joy. Its proclamation in Jesus' parable of the workers in the vineyard in Matthew 20 is so clear and full: those who were only employed for the final hour of the day are given the same reward as those who had laboured throughout. Grace is not a wage, it is a gift, given freely from the heart of God.

The parable, of course, isn't teaching about the economics of employment. It is quite clearly focussed on the grace of God that reaches those lost in sin, the marginalised and excluded, and makes them, from the start, full members of the kingdom of God, fully accepted children in his family - loved, cherished, honoured.

We rejoice with those who rejoice in the salvation that God has lavished upon them. We glory in the One whose presence and blessing transforms them, with increasing likeness, into the image of his Son.

Yet the response in the parable of those who had worked all day raises an important challenge for us: when they grumble, the Master asks them a question that goes straight to our hearts, too: "Are you envious because I am generous?"

We are not immune to such a spirit. It's a question that can be asked of churches and ministries that see other congregations thriving, perhaps having only recently begun. The temptation is to explain away the growth as somehow fake and founded on dubious methods. It's a question that faces us when we see others blessed in the very things we ourselves lack and have longed for. Why them and not us? Where have we gone wrong? What have they done right?

The challenge is real and it has repercussions that go to the very heart of how we relate to the Lord. When we struggle over the joy of others, it can lead to our view of God becoming tainted and the basis of our relationship with him distorted. In the parable, envy is wedded to expectation on the grounds of merit and the generosity of the Master is deemed incongruous.

The pain and distress of trials, as well as our desire for vindication that affirms our worth before others, can lead us to demand we be treated according to what we feel we deserve from God. Others have received, why haven't we? Haven't we, after all, "borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day"? Haven't we suffered long enough to have earned a reprieve and a reward? Such thoughts disclose a spirit of slavery, not sonship.

Discarding grace for merit is the road to disappointment, frustration and bitterness. However hard we might sometimes find it to rejoice in others' blessings, we need to ask God for his help to do so. Because the alternative is grievous; the arid joylessness of demanding we be paid our 'wages' will never lift. Life - eternal life, in all its expansive fulness - is entirely and truly the gift of God.

************

Lord of the cross of shame,
set my cold heart aflame
with love for you, my Saviour and my Master;
who on that lonely day
bore all my sins away,
and saved me from the judgement and disaster.

Lord of the empty tomb,
born of a virgin's womb,
triumphant over death, its power defeated;
how gladly now I sing
your praise, my risen King,
and worship you, in heaven's splendour seated.

Lord of my life today,
teach me to live and pray
as one who knows the joy of sins forgiven;
so may I ever be,
now and eternally,
one with my fellow-citizens in heaven.

(Michael Saward, 1932-2015)

Joy in the Journey (54) - Searched and Known

A theologian's colleague had a sign on his door: "Jesus knows me, this I love". It's a striking reversal of a much-loved line and one that takes us into the depths of our human longing to be known openly and accepted freely, with a love that displaces our shame.

In Psalm 139, David reflects on being known by God. Addressing himself to the "LORD" - the Uncreated One, full of power and splendour and light, the God of covenant surety - he says, "LORD, you have searched me". Nothing is hidden from your sight. Everything lies open before you. You have searched me - turned over every leaf, pulled away all the dead bark; scoured me, but without any caustic intent.

And you have searched so that you might know. Not the knowledge of desiccated shards of information, but knowing the person, the whole being, body and soul. You have searched me "and you know" - you know not just me but all things (as Peter affirmed to Jesus - John 21:17). Every hiding place is open to you. Every shaded retreat from voices and faces. Every arrowed anxiety. Every breath. You have searched me and you know - with limitless extent.

And not just breadth but depth: every activity and action; every thought; every impulse birthed into words; all my ways, habits, peculiarities and weaknesses - "my going out and my lying down". The momentum of life that is only ever a mystery to me, he knows, without limits.

The LORD knows and, in that knowing, "You hem me in behind and before". You surround my whole life; no gaps; no instant where you are absent; no place where you are empty space. And your hand - firm, secure, tender - "you lay your hand upon me", without haste, in holy love and purpose. Hands that flung stars into space and surrendered to cruel nails - the scarred hands of infinite love are laid upon me.

David has been searched and known and he himself knows that the LORD is the One who is present, always and everywhere. His hands shape and mould. All this, and more, is unveiled in sacred trust. All this, David acknowledges, "is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain". We cannot contain the mystery and the majesty of being known by the living God, known to this extent and with such tender love and honesty and purpose.

What possible response can we make to being known like this, to being loved as we are known? With David we draw breath and pray, not for less but for the more of ongoing relationship and illimitable life:

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me, and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

************

Pass me not, O gentle Saviour,

Hear my humble cry;

While on others Thou art calling,

Do not pass me by.

    Saviour! Saviour!

    Hear my humble cry;

    While on others Thou art calling,

    Do not pass me by.

Let me at a throne of mercy

Find a sweet relief;

Kneeling there in deep contrition,

Help my unbelief.

    Saviour, Saviour,

    Hear my humble cry;

    While on others Thou art calling,

    Do not pass me by.

Trusting only in Thy merit,

Would I seek Thy face;

Heal my wounded, broken spirit,

Save me by Thy grace.

    Saviour, Saviour,

    Hear my humble cry;

    While on others Thou art calling,

    Do not pass me by.

Thou the spring of all my comfort,

More than life to me;

Whom have I on earth beside Thee?

Whom in heaven but Thee?

    Saviour, Saviour,

    Hear my humble cry;

    While on others Thou art calling,

    Do not pass me by.

(Frances Jane Van Alstyne, 1820-1915)

Trinity (Eugene Peterson)

Trinity is a conceptual attempt to provide coherence to God as God is revealed variously as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in our Scriptures: God is emphatically personal; God is only and exclusively God in relationship. Trinity is not an attempt to explain or define God by means of abstractions (although there is some of that, too), but a witness that God reveals himself as personal and in personal relations. The down-to-earth consequence of this is that God is rescued from the speculations of the metaphysicians and brought boldly into a community of men, women, and children who are called to enter into this communal life of love, an emphatically personal life where they experience themselves in personal terms of love and forgiveness, of hope and desire. Under the image of the Trinity we discover that we do not know God by defining him but by being loved by him and loving in return. The consequences of this are personally revelatory: another does not know me, nor do I know another, by defining or explaining, by categorizing or by psychologizing, but only relationally, by accepting and loving, by giving and receiving. The personal and interpersonal provide the primary images (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) for both knowing God and being known by God. This is living, not thinking about living; living with, not performing for.

 

Eugene Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousands Places

 

Joy in the Journey (53) - By my side

The apostle Paul was put on trial as a Christian for heralding the good news that Jesus is Lord and not Caesar (2 Tim. 4:9-18). It was, quite clearly, a desperately trying time. And it was made all the more so by some people defecting back to the world or attempting to cause him harm. Then there were those who deserted him in his hour of need, for whom he prays that the Lord would not hold it against them.

Our lives are not painted in quite such stark colours but the reality remains that we, too, can experience hostility for faith in Jesus and even a sense (rightly or wrongly perceived) of being deserted by those we ought to be able to look to for help. At all such times, Paul's testimony is so heartening and welcome: "But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength." (v.17)

Like Paul, our need of strength is comprehensive - physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. The resources we have acquired and stored-up can be emptied in a moment and our vulnerability laid bare. Exposed to trials we tremble and perhaps begin to crumble. But the Lord gives his people strength.

Not necessarily deliverance from the circumstances but the capacity to endure them. Not always a change of heart in those who aim to hurt us, but a heightened resolve in our own to look to and hide in the Saviour.

Paul needed that strength as much as we do. And the Lord gave it to him. We can be encouraged by that.

But he speaks here of something else, too, something truly precious. Not only did the Lord give him strength but he "stood at my side". The strength Paul needed could, presumably, have been given without such an awareness yet it was given at just the time it was needed.

Standing at Paul's side indicates the Lord Jesus' deep solidarity with him, a profound identification that Paul belongs to him and he is not ashamed to own him as such. Paul had not been abandoned by the One who meant most to him, whose love animated his life and impelled his service.

The one standing alongside him had hung betrayed and beaten on a cross of shame, alone in the darkness of his suffering, with no-one to walk that valley with him. He will not allow, he will never permit, those he gave his life for to experience those depths of isolation. He stands by our side, always.

Did others see what Paul saw and feel what he felt? We can't say. Possibly not. But that doesn't invalidate his experience. Paul knew he was not alone. Paul knew he was honoured and held by the One he was testifying for. He had been delivered from the lion's mouth and was fully convinced he would be delivered from every evil attack, being brought safely to God's heavenly kingdom.

Was the Lord's presence and sustaining grace simply for Paul's wellbeing? Paul believes not: the Lord stood at his side and gave him strength "so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the nations might hear it." Not one drop of suffering was wasted; all his tears were bottled and honoured by the Lord and, in his sovereign goodwill, made to be a blessing to others as the gospel was heard by then.

His strength, his solidarity and his sovereign goodness remain with all his people. We can count on it, even when all else fails.

************

He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength when the labours increase;
To added affliction He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.

    His love has no limit, His grace has no measure,
    His power has no boundary known unto men;
    For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
    He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again!

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,
Our Father's full giving is only begun.

    His love has no limit, His grace has no measure,
    His power has no boundary known unto men;
    For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
    He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again!

(Annie Johnson Flint)

Joy in the Journey (52) - The opportunity to return

Sometimes it makes sense to turn back. A mountain climb when the weather closes in, or driving somewhere when thick, freezing fog descends. On such occasions turning back is the epitome of wisdom. Retracing your steps in the maze of life is not easy but sometimes it's all you can do.

There are times in the Christian life when we find ourselves wanting to turn back. Retreating to what seems like the safety of the known, a refuge from the icy winds of an unending journey. Or if not turning back then at least turning aside for a while. Finding some kind of no-man's-land where the demands of discipleship no longer take their toll. But those options - turning back or turning aside - often amount to the same thing.

Coming to faith in Jesus is never intended to be, nor does it at the time feel like, a casual and possibly temporary choice. But it does us no good to pretend that such temptations are not real. Others have been here before us and have testified to the same things.

And scripture tells us, if we want an opportunity to return, to turn aside and turn away, it'll be given to us (Heb. 11:15). We'll find that, in fact, there are plenty of them: disappointment and hurt at the hands of other Christians; the cooling down of our heightened emotions; the never-ending battles with 'the world, the flesh and the devil' - all provide the opportunity to go back to our own Egypt.

Such a choice was placed before Ruth. She and her sister-in-law Orpah had accompanied their mother-in-law Naomi on the first part of her journey back to Bethlehem - back to a future whose only certainty was shame and hardship. Naomi makes the case to her daughters-in-law that they ought, now, to go back home. Back to what was known, what was familiar, where husbands might again be theirs. To find some semblance of ease in the acceptance of their own people.

Her case made sense, to Orpah. But not to Ruth. Her sights were set on something else. She had somehow seen, presumably in and through Naomi, that her gods were no gods at all, that the LORD alone was God. And so she expressed herself in the clearest possible way:

"Where you go, I will go, and where you stay I will stay.

Your people will be my people and your God my God.

Where you die I will die and there I will be buried."

For Ruth, Bethlehem was more than a minor town in the region of Judah; it signified "a better country - a heavenly one". Her words to Naomi were the deepest expression that she was now admitting she was "a foreigner and stranger on earth," who had seen and welcomed the promises of God from a distance.

It is the same reality that pulls us forward, too. There are indeed many opportunities to return for those who wish to, but we have been gifted a vision of the heavenly Jerusalem, where the King in all his beauty is seen. We have tasted and seen that the LORD is good. We have become his children - "heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ". We have the Holy Spirit as "a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession - to the praise of his glory."

Egypt is no longer our home, however strong the pull might be. There are times when we learn the hard way that our true home and our fullest life is "now hidden with Christ in God". But as Sara Groves suggests,

If it comes too quick
I may not appreciate it;
Is that the reason behind all this time and sand?
And if it comes too quick
I may not recognise it;
Is that the reason behind all this time and sand?

Here's the truth: those roads have indeed been closed off to us; we're no longer slaves, but children of the King. No going back.

************

I don't want to leave here,
I don't want to stay;
It feels like pinching to me,
Either way.
And the places I long for the most
Are the places where I've been,
They are calling out to me
Like a long lost friend.

It's not about losing faith,
It's not about trust;
It's all about comfortable
When you move so much.
And the place I was wasn't perfect
But I had found a way to live;
And it wasn't milk or honey
But, then, neither is this.

I've been painting pictures of Egypt,

Leaving out what it lacks;
The future feels so hard
And I want to go back.
But the places that used to fit me
Cannot hold the things I've learned;
Those roads were closed off to me,
While my back was turned.

The past is so tangible
I know it by heart;
Familiar things are never easy
To discard.
And I was dying for some freedom
But now I hesitate to go;
I am caught between the Promise
And the things I know.

I've been painting pictures of Egypt,

Leaving out what it lacks;
The future feels so hard
And I want to go back.
But the places that used to fit me
Cannot hold the things I've learned;
Those roads were closed off to me,
While my back was turned.

If it comes too quick,

I may not appreciate it;
Is that the reason behind all this time and sand?
And if it comes too quick,
I may not recognise it;
Is that the reason behind all this time and sand?

(Sara Groves, Painting Pictures of Egypt)