The Streets I Feared to See
I said: "Let me walk in the field."
God said: "Nay, walk in the town."
I said: "There are no flowers there."
He said: "No flowers but a crown."
I said: "but the sky is black,
There is nothing but noise and din."
But He wept as he sent me back,
"There is more," he said, "there is sin."
And fog is veiling the sun."
He answered: "Yet souls are sick,
And souls in the dark undone."
I said: "I shall miss the light,
And friends will miss me, they say."
He answered me: "Choose tonight
If I am to miss you, or they."
I pleaded for time to be given.
He said: "Is it hard to decide?
It will not seem hard in Heaven
To have followed the steps of your Guide."
I cast one look at the fields,
Then set my face to the town.
He said: "My child, do you yield?
Will you leave the flowers for the crown?"
Then into His hand went mine,
And into my heart came He;
And I walk in a light Divine
The streets I had feared to see.
George MacDonald (1824-1905)