On God's Green Earth, How Green is my Valley?

the blindness of unbelief, in aging and grief can make your mouth form such questions of our benevolent God... What a simpler time was the testimony of Richard Llewellyn in "How Green..." In the movie it was boiled down, but in my mind's eye, I see a grieving and lonely boy left with the solitude of memories of a bustling happy season of family life and asking God, was it worth it to be born with all the happy times of family in my rearview window. Was I supposed to document the beauty only and not include the darkness of my journey? You said "He leads me beside the still waters and makes me lie down in green pastures." Where's my team now that it is my turn to walk through the dark valley?---I see the silence of the last birdie leaving the nest having had all of the burden of laying parent's to rest and looking for the future in the looming hard memories of the past. How can I hang onto my faith when all who have led me here are gone and they don't seem to be trustworthy in my estimations?

God is real even then!

Llewellyn didn't paint any rosy pictures of the world that he had inherited. He didn't leave any hypocrisy unwritten. The saving of the souls left some spiritually alive and was a savor of death to some, as well. The Great Awakening and the spiritual strivings of earlier generations have blessed our world with a greater knowledge of the physical needs and the spiritual needs of individuals. God wants us to fight the fight of reformation and restoration in all of these areas and not to leave the hypocrisies undealt with. Instead, we shut our eyes to the psychological and emotional questions of these rantings. Baby brother, Richard Llewellyn God is good and our valley is green, even when the green looks darker than at some other generations.

just a thought