Follow the Steps Of Your Guide

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.”

I said: But the air is thick, and fogs are
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 path I had feared to see.

- George MacDonald

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