I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year

I learnt about this poem, given by Queen Elizabeth II at 13 years old then to her father, King George VI, as part of the Christmas message in 1939 and it has been repeated as a poem used by the Royal Family throughout the years.

The poem, written in 1908 by Minnie Louise Haskins and privately published in 1912, was part of a collection titled The Desert. It caught the public attention and the popular imagination when King George VI quoted it in his 1939 Christmas broadcast to the British Empire.

Her words live on inscribed at the entrance to the George VI memorial chapel in St George’s Chapel, Windsor, and in a window at the Queen’s Chapel of the Savoy. The poem was read at the funeral of Elizabeth, the Queen Mother in 2002.


God knows
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And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:

“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”

And he replied:

“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”

So I went forth, and finding the hand of God, trod gladly into the night.
And he led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone east.

So heart be still: what need our little life our human life to know, if God hath comprehension? In all the dizzy strife of things both high and low, God hideth his intention.

God knows. His will is best. The stretch of years which wind ahead, so dim to our imperfect vision, are clear to god. Our fears are premature; in him, all time hath full provision.

Then rest: until God moves to lift the veil from our impatient eyes, when, as the sweeter features of life’s stern face we hail, fair beyond all surmise God’s thought around his creatures our mind shall fill.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gate_of_the_Year

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsehistory/2013/12/10/the-gate-of-the-year-minnie-louise-haskins-1875-1957/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherhowse/3561497/At-the-Gate-of-the-Year.html

Christmas Devotion for GB Party 2016

I have not shared a Christmas Devotion for a long time. It used to be our company had few girls like 20 over and we officers would take turn to share a simple Christmas Stories with the girls. But now, we have grown into a group of 60 over, organising events is quite challenging.

This year, the organising team headed by Beatrice Chung and Lois Wong has asked me to share. I had a long think about it. At first, I was planning on sharing "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and its real meaning behind the 12 numeric numbers. But after reading and understanding all the doctrines of it, I realised that it is rather hard to explain to so many cadets and juniors who would have attention span issues. I have to keep it simple and easy to understand and yet meaningful and goes well with the theme of "Season of Giving". Below was my devotion sharing and I was very pleased with the outcome and participation of the girls with writing their thanksgiving notes and hanging on the empty Christmas Tree and at the end, it was a beautiful decorated Christmas Tree.