The Brighter View of Life


If God be for us, who can be against us?--Rom. 8: 31.

A German allegorical poem tells of a man who was leading a camel somewhere in Syria. The beast began to act strangely. The man fled in terror. The camel pursued. The frightened man leaped into a gorge. As he plunged downward, his fall was arrested by a bramble. There he hung suspended. Looking upward, he saw the horrible face of the camel. Looking downward, he saw a dragon, open-jawed, ready to devour him. Looking in front of him, he saw two mice, one black and the other white, gnawing in turn at the root of the bush to which he was clinging. Overcome with the horror of his situation, he saw no way of escape. Then he observed within his reach a cluster of ripe bramble berries. He began to eat these; and thus engaged, he dismissed from his mind the terrors of his plight.

The meaning of the allegory, according to the poet, is this:

The camel represents the troubles and cares of life, from which man flees. The dragon represents death, which is waiting to devour him. The black and white mice represent night and day, which gnaw away that which holds him to life. The ripe berries represent the daily pursuits in which man engages, causing him to forget the ugly and menacing realities of his problem.

What a gloomy view of life!

We have a better and brighter view of life, we who believe in God and trust Him.

"If God be for us, who can be against us?” What can trouble do to us? What can death do to us? "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or swords? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us" (Rom. 8: 35, 37).

Let me speak by way of testimony, rather than as commentator. My trust in God dispels all my fears--even the fear of death. My faith in God enables me to see life bright with hope and promise in spite of all its ills and troubles. Let the worst happen, I shall go on trusting God and adhering to this brighter view of life.