Poem February 10, 1945 Issue

A Desert Place

MABEL CONE BUSHNELL

He made of it a thing of God,
The desert place;
The loved Master sought
This quiet solitude
Where he might know
His heavenly Father,
And receive from Him
The strength to carry on.
And when the world
Pressed in, with all
Its claims of stern reality,
The desert place
Revealed how utterly
Unreal they were;
The evidence that Jesus saw,
Calling itself material sense,
Was wiped away
As there he, all alone,
Communed with God.
Today it has been given us,
Through understanding dear,
The power to find
A desert place
Where we may gather near
Our Father-Mother God:
It may not be
The desert place
We each would find.
If choice were ours,
But truly we shall know
A place all filled with good,
Where'er we are,
If we but put God first.
And prove again.
Though agony may
Pave the way.
How sweet communion
With our Father is,
And strengthening,
To carry through the day.