A Name in the Sand

I discovered this poem in William J. Bennett’s, The Book of Virtues, published in 1993. Hannah Flagg Gould 1789 – 1865 penned this poem. I coincidently am attending a Bible study and our topic this week included James 4: 13, 14, Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

So with brevity of life in the forefront of my mind, I found this writing filled with the challenge to continue my pondering. How I am grateful to my Father, my Shepherd, for His grace, mercy and yes, reward!

Alone I walked the ocean strand;

A pearly shell was in my hand;

I stooped and wrote upon the sand

          My name-the year-the day.

As onward from the spot I passed,

One lingering look behind I cast;

A wave came rolling high and fast,

          And washed my lines away.

 

And so, methought, ‘twill shortly be

With every mark on earth from me:

A wave of dark oblivion’s sea

          Will sweep across the place

Where I have trod the sandy shore

Of time, and been, to be nor more,

Of me-my day-the name I bore,

          To leave nor track nor trace.

 

And yet, with Him who counts the sands

And holds the waters in His hands,

I know a lasting record stands

          Inscribed against my name,

Of all this mortal part has wrought,

Of all this thinking soul has thought,

And from these fleeting moments caught

          For glory or for shame.