Just Out of Sight

"'Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross' [Hebrews 12:2] is a great word for fainting souls.

"As I read the New Testament over and over, I am more and more impressed by the way suffering was taken for granted as something appointed; but always there is the thought of joy not far off. 

"In our Lord's private talks with his disciples, there is continually and clearly that "must" of suffering and the joy to follow. 

"We often act as if the place that is called Calvary had been taken out of the landscape of life or was an accident there.  It is not so; but just out of sight is the joy that is set before us, and there is the power which can enable us to treat the invisible as visible, the promised as present."

Amy Carmichael, July 22 in Edges of His Ways

[today's rose bouquets rescued from a fierce, hot prairie wind]