Desert Sand

My life was a desert full of sand,
The sun burned down to scorch the land,
No vegetation grew in me,
Just stones, and sand, and misery.

But then there came a healing rain:
God set my gloomy heart aflame,
And, from the burning sand, there grew
Green grass, and flowers of every hue.

He watered it with magic love,
And tuned my heart to look above,
And, in the sunshine of His smile,
My empty life became worthwhile.

He caused the sand, once in repose,
In love, to blossom like the rose,
The barren earth to sprout, and grow,
Where e'er His Living Waters flow!

                    ~ W.R. Goodman

A Name in the Sand

Alone I walked the ocean strand;
A pearly shell was in my hand:
I stooped and wrote upon the sand
My name--the year--the day.
As onward from the spot I passed,
One lingering look behind I cast;
A wave came rolling high and fast,
And washed my lines away.

And so, methought, 'twill shortly be
With every mark on earth from me:
A wave of dark oblivion's sea
Will sweep across the place
Where I have trod the sandy shore
Of time, and been, to be no more,
Of me--my day--the name I bore,
To leave nor track nor trace.

And yet, with Him Who counts the sands
And holds the waters in His hands,
I know a lasting record stands
Inscribed against my name,
Of all this mortal part has wrought,
Of all this thinking soul has thought,
And from these fleeting moments caught
For glory or for shame.

--Hannah Flagg Gould