December 26, 1997
Dear Brother Stanley:
May the Lord bless you and your wife and preserve your life and health, happiness, and prosperity as He promised. As Paul said, peace and joy be unto you from Christ and our Father, who never sleeps nor slumbers. With such a God, we have nothing to fear for the future except as we forget the way the Lord has lead us in the past.
We are surrounded with such manifold tokens of God’s love
that we ought to be ashamed for failing to trust the Lord in times
of trial, confusion, perplexity, uncertainty, doubt, or difficulties
of all varieties.
Several weeks ago, November 14, I rode into Elizabethton to do
some shopping. (Incidently, the reason why this letter is dated
December 26, rather then November, is due to its residence in
what I call the letter holding tank. When I write to brothers
of my acquaintance, I let the letters marinate, as it were, for
several weeks: only in this fashion can I be assured that the
letter I send to you is written to the best of my ability.)
As I was saying about my trip to town: the road leads through
the mountains down to the valley. As we descended through the
woods, the trees assumed a greater variety of color as one would
experience driving from north to south in late fall. The foliage,
in our area, is bleak and desolate, while near Elizabethton, the
trees display a coat of many colors.
There is beauty where ever we look, if we stop long enough to
see it. Even in their gaunt, winter garb of gray and browns, the
trees are pretty, especially against a back drop of gray clouds.
There is something majestic about the winter trees, stripped of
their leaves, their branches backlit by the sun reflected from
cumulous clouds. The interplay of sun and shadows, light and dark,
grays, browns, and the yellows of the grass, and the dark greens
of the pine trees speak to us of God’s love even in the winter
months, so symbolic of death. The mountains are most lovely in
all seasons of the year, testifying to their Creator with a might
and resplendence, glory and magnificence that surpass any beauty
man can create. Our Lord is a lover of the beautiful, for he placed
the soft white cloud on the bosom of the blue sky, the sparkling
brook nestled between the toes of the mountains, the green moss
upon the gnarled trunk of the majestic oak or lowly pine, the
rustling carpet of leaves that cover the forest floor, and the
bubbling spring or happy cataract bursting fourth from beneath
the mountains.
It is good to leave the highways and byways of urban centers and
loose ones self, figuratively, at least, among the mountains,
to draw sustenance from their strength, stand in awe of their
might and enduring grandeur, in full realization that our God
is above them all in beauty and nobility of person and character.
This is why I love the mountains, for, standing at their feet
or upon their rugged sides, I sense my true relationship to God.
Unworthy, with an unloving character, yet, just as I draw strength
from the vast ramparts all about me, so I draw upon the vast resources
that are freely poured out from the throne of Grace.
While we may face many perplexities, not knowing which way to
turn, this way or that way, we have the eternal surety that God
is able to guide and direct us if we desire His help. Our greatest
need is to determine our true relationship to him which is best
seen by observing the mountains, for who is equal to their magnificence
but God? In contrast, our majesty and glory sink into nothingness,
for who can move a mountain except God and those who have faith
in his power and might. Without him, we are but a leaf upon the
forest floor, but with him and through him, we can move mountains.
Be of good courage my brother and friend as we sink out of sight,
for then God is magnified and this is as he would have it.
May the Lord richly bless you, your brother in Christ.
Allen A. Benson