A Better Resurrection

Elizabeth Elliot quotes this poem in her book, The Savage My Kinsman. She writes that she had marked these words shortly after the death of her husband Jim by the Auca Indians. She also remarked that the Lord had answered the prayers in this poem! The Lord has used the writings of Elizabeth Elliot in a huge way to comfort me during my own difficult trials in life. She is a great woman of faith, who deals with the reality of loss and suffering in redemptive ways. May the Lord bless you as you read the words that she quotes by Christina Rossetti.

A BETTER RESURRECTION

by: Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

I HAVE no wit, no words, no tears;
My heart within me like a stone
Is numb'd too much for hopes or fears;
Look right, look left, I dwell alone;
I lift mine eyes, but dimm'd with grief
No everlasting hills I see;
My life is in the falling leaf:
O Jesus, quicken me.

My life is like a faded leaf,
My harvest dwindled to a husk:
Truly my life is void and brief
And tedious in the barren dusk;
My life is like a frozen thing,
No bud nor greenness can I see:
Yet rise it shall--the sap of Spring;
O Jesus, rise in me.

My life is like a broken bowl,
A broken bowl that cannot hold
One drop of water for my soul
Or cordial in the searching cold;
Cast in the fire the perish'd thing;
Melt and remould it, till it be
A royal cup for Him, my King:
O Jesus, drink of me.

"A Better Resurrection" is reprinted from Goblin Market and other Poems. Christina Rossetti. Cambridge: Macmillan, 1862.