November 12 - Wisdom Speaks

What an amazing time it was!



She opened her Bible, and the Word of the Lord spoke to her. With every visitor, in the nights when sleep wouldn’t come, when she prayed and asked the questions she had, the comfort and the promises of God were unfailing.



In Proverbs, chapter 8, Wisdom speaks . . . Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips [shall be] right things.

Everything spoke of truth and mercy and goodness and the power of God. Was this “hospital grace,” the Abbess wondered, or was it “the normal Christian life?”



Preparation counts, she knew. When she couldn’t sleep, there were Scriptures she could recite and songs she could sing in her soul and there was the habit and the discipline of prayer to see her through the night.



Quiet and stillness had been afforded, circumstantially, and she knew that these, too, contributed to the peace and the quickness of her ear.



Above all, the near God, ever near, never to be brought up from the depths or down from on high, was near as always; the Word was very near, even in her mouth (Romans 10:8,) and she was very glad.


Vale of Rest
John Everett Millais
by permission