‘For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.’ (Ecclesiastes 1:18).
Ann Dawson was a faithful parishioner at our church for many years. I took her funeral back in 2018. Every now and then she would pass on to me a snippet of wisdom that she had collected. Here are two memorable ones:
1 Sorrow comes to Every Door.
“One day when the future seemed to hold so much in store – someone halted at the gate and knocked upon my door. He said, ‘It’s time I knew you. You have had your happy years – now I come to bring you trouble. Now it’s time for tears.’ His presence darkened every room with fear and grief and pain – I thought the sun would never shine again. But when at last he went away I chanced to see his face – and suddenly a kind of glory shone around the place. I cried: ‘what are you, friend or angel? Enemy or friend?’
“He said: ‘My name is Sorrrow. Soon or late my way I wind down every road – for all men must be visited by me – to make them wise and give them strength to face reality.’”
2 Doing the Little Things
“We sometimes get impatient doing homely little things – simple things that seem of no importance; tasks that each day brings. We think we’re wasting precious time in such like drudgery – because we feel we’re fitted for a higher destiny.
But God did not despise the doing of the little things. He must have spent much time creating feathers, fins and wings. He made the mountains and the seas – the whirling worlds on high – and yet he deigned to make the ant, the bee, the butterfly – the spider and the snowflake and the smallest bird that sings – so surely we with grace and care do life’s little things.”