We are pleased to share with you two of Elisabeth’s personal letters to her parents in honor of Mother and Father’s Day. We pray you will be encouraged by this special glimpse into her relationship with her parents.
Dearest Folks,
“What we will know and see and feel and hear, when the sunset colours kindle and the stars appear?” So writes A.C. (Amy Carmichael) in one of her poems, speaking of the return of our Lord. This morning I was thinking of each one in our family, of the different tasks we have to do, the wide contrast in the places where the Lord has put us. And I thought of that wonderful day when all things shall be revealed, we shall look back and see the plan of our Lord in our lives, the pattern from the right side instead of the under side. Surely we shall say then, “With mercy and with judgment my web of time He wove, and aye, the dews of sorrows were lustered with His love. I’ll bless the hand that guided, I’ll bless the heart that planned, when throned where glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land.” . . .
Mother dear, what a joy and encouragement your letters are to me. It is so good to hear what everyone is doing, and to receive the many spiritual helps which you and Dad always include. I pray that you may be given strength and grace for the many burdens you have, with Nana, especially, and then all that tiring physical work in the household. It is good to remember that nothing unneedful ever comes to us. God is perfecting in us His will. He is the Master Gardener, and the pruning hook is of His choosing, not ours. And how unexpected are His uses of it! Oh, it is something to learn to trust, rest, in His wisdom, without question. Bewilderment, doubt, confusion, left with Him who knows us “altogether.” Wow! Listen to me, giving you, who have so obviously learned these lessons, a sermon! No, I really am only echoing few lessons that God is having a hard time teaching me…
Still I have not been giving light on what I should do this summer, and so I ask all to continue to pray that I will know. I can see that God could not have let me go to the mission field when I thought I would be going, and through these two years since college He has taught us me things, which if I had not learned before going out to the field might have meant my downfall, and the downfall of others. But it is easy to be impatient. I like the part in “His Thoughts” about “The time of preparation is longer than I had expected.” How true! May the Lord lead us all on, purifying our hearts daily, and making us ever more like Him. I love each one of you, and love to hear from you all. — Betty