The Distance Beyond the Stars
A Poem by Russ Hjelm
There is a height no wing has ever crossed,
A sea no sounding line of man has known,
A wisdom older than the birth of fire,
A throne beyond the architecture of stars.
Before the mountains gathered into form,
Before the oceans learned their restless song,
Before the first dawn split the ancient dark,
The Holy One inhabited eternity.
And man, born low beneath the dust of time,
Walks a little while beneath the sun,
Measuring Heaven with a mortal reed,
And weighing mysteries with trembling hands.
He builds towers from the clay of thought,
And calls them sufficient for the soul;
Yet every stone of human certainty
Grows brittle in the winds of God.
For who has climbed into the courts above
To teach the Almighty knowledge or restraint?
Who counseled Him when worlds were yet unborn?
Who traced the rivers for the thundercloud?
Who taught the lightning where its path should bend,
Or fixed the boundaries of the roaring sea?
The nations rise like vapor from the earth,
And vanish ere the morning dew is gone.
Yet man, though fleeting as the autumn grass,
Doth strive to bind eternity with words.
He seeks reasons for the grief he bears,
And answers sorrow with impatient cries.
He asks why the righteous walk through fire,
Why tears descend upon the innocent,
Why valleys dark with suffering remain
Though Heaven knows every wounded heart.
But God remains higher than our grief,
And wiser than the wisdom born of dust.
His judgments move like undiscovered stars,
Too vast for mortal eyes to comprehend.
What seems loss within the narrow hour
May bloom in glory through eternal years.
The seed is buried in the silent earth,
Yet hidden life awakes in its grave.
The child doth fear the surgeon’s careful blade,
Not knowing mercy guides every wound.
The sailor trembles in the midnight storm,
Though unseen currents bear him safely home.
So often does the human spirit quake
Beneath the heavy hand of providence,
Not seeing that the everlasting God
Is carving peace through instruments of pain.
For Heaven’s thoughts are deep as endless skies,
And man’s are shallow as the passing stream.
We love the comfort of immediate light,
But God prepares everlasting dawns.
We pray for ease while He bestows strength;
We ask for shelter while He builds faith.
We seek the crown apart from thorn and cross,
Yet Christ Himself was perfected through grief.
Behold the hill where sorrow met with love,
Where innocence was lifted up to die.
The world beheld a carpenter condemned,
A failed Messiah hanging under wrath.
The heavens darkened like a mourner’s veil,
And every hope seemed buried in the earth.
Yet there upon that cruel and bloodstained tree
The wisdom of eternity prevailed.
For what appeared the triumph of the grave
Became the overthrow of death itself.
The pierced hands opened paradise to thieves;
The wounded Lamb became the Shepherd-King.
Hell’s ancient gates were shaken by His voice,
And mercy flowed where judgment should have stood.
Thus God accomplishes His highest works
Through ways the proud heart never would conceive.
O soul, remember when your path grows dim
That Heaven is not governed by thy sight.
The tapestry beneath the Weaver’s hand
Appears tangled from the lower side;
Yet every thread, though darkened by the night,
Is guided by a wisdom without flaw.
One day the hidden pattern shall appear,
And every sorrow shall reveal its gold.
There are deep chambers in the heart of God
No earthly lantern hath the strength to reach.
His purposes move silent through the years,
Like roots beneath the forest after snow.
Empires collapse beneath His quiet will;
The mighty fade like candles in the wind.
Yet still His covenant remains sure,
And every promise stands fast forever.
How small the pride of intellectual kings,
Who speak as though all truth were theirs to hold.
The scholar with his volumes lined in dust,
The ruler seated in his hall of stone,
The merchant counting treasures through the night,
The warrior draped in garments stained by war—
All stand alike before the living God,
As children staring upward at the stars.
For none can search the limits of His mind,
Nor trace the fullness of His holy ways.
The eagle cannot comprehend the sea,
Nor fish ascend to understand the clouds.
How then shall mortal flesh encompass Him
Whose breath sustains every living thing?
The universe itself is but a spark
Before the endless glory of His throne.
Yet wonder upon wonder still remains:
This God beyond the reach of highest thought
Doth bend His ear toward brokenhearted men.
The One whose wisdom formed the galaxies
Still knows every sparrow when it falls.
He counts tears that vanish in the night;
He heareth prayers too weak for human speech;
He holds trembling souls within His hand.
His ways are higher, yet His heart is near.
His thoughts surpass us, yet He speaks peace.
He dwells clothed in uncreated light,
Yet walked among the poor in human flesh.
The Infinite became the infant child;
The Author entered His own written world.
The Lord of Glory bore the weight of shame
That wandering sinners might be brought to God.
Therefore despair not in your limited sight,
Nor trust the frailty of your passing thoughts.
The wisdom born of earth shall fade away,
But every word of God endures still.
When shadows gather thick around thy road,
And answers flee beyond the edge of thought,
Remember this: the silence of the Lord
Is never absence from His children’s pain.
The farmer waits through the barren months,
Trusting the hidden labor of the seed.
The watchman stands through the longest night,
Certain the dawn will break beyond the hills.
So let the faithful soul endure in hope,
Though mysteries remain unresolved below.
For there shall come an everlasting morn
When all the riddles of the earth grow clear.
Then shall the weary understand their tears,
And martyrs see the purpose of their wounds.
Then every darkened providence shall shine
With meaning born from everlasting love.
The doors once closed by sorrow and by death
Shall open wide before the throne of Christ,
And all the saints shall bow with humbled joy
Before the wisdom of Almighty God.
Until that hour, let mortal pride be still.
Let anxious striving loosen from the soul.
Let every heart learn reverence and trust,
For God alone beholds all things whole.
The river knows not the distant sea,
Yet onward by the hidden current moves.
So let your life be carried by His hand,
Though thou canst not yet see where grace shall lead.
For higher than the heavens are His ways,
And deeper than the silence of the stars
Are thoughts too wonderful for human speech,
Yet filled with mercy toward the sons of dust.
And when the final veil is torn away,
When time dissolves at His sovereign word,
Creation shall with one united voice
Confess the goodness of the Holy One.