M ost of us, I suppose, best remember Joyce Kilmer for his famous poem on the tree:
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree . . .
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
But others of Kilmer’s poems speak of his sense of God’s love and of the all-sufficiency of the work accomplished by His only begotten Son:
Lord, Thou didst suffer more for me,
Than all the hosts of land and sea.
Joyce Kilmer was only thirty years old when he was killed in France. He was the father of five small children. Already well known as a poet, one would say that he had everything to live for. But in a letter home shortly before his death, Kilmer admitted that he had not written much while he was away.
“Writing is not the tremendously important thing I once considered it,” he said, and added: “Pray for me, that I may love God more, and that I may be unceasingly conscious of Him - that is the greatest desire I have.”
What is your greatest desire? God grant that it may truly be that of Kilmer - to love Him more who first loved you, to say from your heart with the poet:
Lord, Thou didst suffer more for me,
Than all the hosts of land and sea.
All that He suffered on the cross He suffered for you, for your sins, that you might have life -everlasting life - and might know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich. (2 Corinthians 8:99For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9).) v
Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his
life for his friends.
Thou wilt keep him in
perfect peace,
whose mind is stayed
on Thee: because
he trusteth in Thee.
Look unto Me, and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth:
for I am God,
and there is none else.
Come, sinners, see Him lifted up
On the cross! On the cross!
He drinks for you the bitter cup
On the cross! On the cross!
The rocks do rend, the mountains quake,
While Jesus doth atonement make,
While Jesus suffers for our sake,
On the cross! On the cross!