The Gate of the Year

We’re at the end of not just a year, but the first decade of the century, ready to move into a new year and a new decade.

The last year or so has been a difficult one for lots of people, not just because of economic problems but there is the sadness due to loss of lives of troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I was reminded of the dark period at the end of 1939 when the Second World War had started in Europe. However dark things seem to get these days, I can’t begin to imagine what people felt like in that terrible time.

Seventy years ago, King George V1 made his Christmas broadcast as usual and at the end he used the first part of this inspirational poem, commonly known as At the Gate of the Year. However it’s correct title is God Knows:

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year

'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.'

And he replied, 'Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God

That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!'

So I went forth and finding the Hand of God,

Trod gladly into the night.

And He led me towards the hills

And the breaking of day in the lone East.

The second, lesser known and not quite so inspirational part of the poem continues with:

So heart be still:
What need our human life to know,
If God hath comprehension?
In all the dizzy strife
Of things both high and low,
God hideth his intention.

God knows, His will
Is best. The stretch of years
Which wind ahead, so dim,
To our imperfect vision,
Are clear to God. Our fears
Are premature: In Him
All time hath full provision.

Then rest; until
God moves to lift the veil
From our impatient eyes,
When, as the sweeter features
Of Life’s stern face we hail,
Fair beyond all surmise
God’s thought around His creatures
Our minds shall fill.

The poem was written by Minnie Louise Haskins who is often thought to be American. However she was English, a grocer's daughter, brought up at Warmley, Bristol. She studied at London School of Economics and eventually taught in the social science department there until 1944.

The poem had been drawn to the King's attention by Queen Elizabeth, the present Queen's mother, and the lines were to be recited 63 years later at her own funeral.

Now there are two lessons I take from this:

1. I don't believe everything I read on the Internet. I like to check the source out.

2. No matter how bad things seem, who knows what the breaking of the day will bring. Tomorrow is another day, fresh, clean and untouched. It's down to me to help shape it.

Whatever the year ahead holds for us all, I hope it is a healthy and a happy one for you and your family. As my Dad used to say at New Year, "Here's wishing you everything you'd wish yourself!" Have a wonderful year in 2010.

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