Spiritual Lesson From Pain

By: Helen Steiner Rice

How little we know what God has in store

As daily he blesses our lives more and more.

I’ve lived many years and I’ve learned many things,

But today I have grown new spiritual wings.

For pain has a way of broadening our view

And bringing us closer in sympathy, too,

To those who are living in constant pain

And trying somehow to bravely sustain

The faith and endurance to keep on trying

When they almost welcome the peace of dying.

Without this experience I would have lived and died

Without fathoming the pain of Christ crucified.

For none of us knows what pain is all about

Until our spiritual wings start to sprout.

So thank you, God, for the gift you sent,

To teach me that pain’s Heaven-sent.