Thursday, November 20, 2008

amy carmichael.

I am in the process of reading A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael by Elisabeth Elliot. Amy Carmichael's life is such a beautiful example of true sacrifice to God and His calling upon her life. I have been greatly encouraged and amazed by the stories of Amy's work in Japan, China, Ceylon, and India. She gives her singleness to the Lord and He uses her motherly gifts in the lives of so many children who would otherwise be bound to the caste system in Dohnavur. Yesterday I read a beautiful passage in the book about her burden for the children of Dohnavur. She speaks of God having taken the entire burden upon Himself, and now we are to share in that with Him, not Him with us. What a beautiful concept.

"One evening when the full responsiblity of the compound rested on Amy (the Walkers were in England on furlough), she had what amounted to a vision. The tamarind trees around the bungalow were olive trees, and under them a man knelt alone. She knew it was the Lord, praying there in the garden for the children. So the burden was His, not hers. She need not ask Him to share it with the lost lambs. 'Who could have done anything but fo into the garden and kneel down beside Him under the olive trees?'
Her poem, 'The Fellowship of His Sufferings,' must have come from that evening's experience. She is 'the lover'. The masculine pronoun refers to herself.

...Darkly distinct, he saw a vision pass
Of One who took the cup alone, alone.
Then broke from him a moan,
A cry to God for pain, for any pain
Save this last desolation; and he crept
In penitence to his Lord's feet again.
.... Never an angel told, but this I know,
That he to whom that night Gethsemane
Opened its secrets, cannot help but go
Softly thereafter, as one lately shriven,
Passionately loving, as one much forgiven.
And never, never can his heart forget
That Head with hair all wet
With the red dews of Love's extremity,
Those eyes from which fountains of love did flow,
There in the Garden of Gethsemane."
- Elisabeth Elliot quoting Amy Carmichael in A Chance to Die

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