We may dwell “with the king for his work” anywhere and everywhere.

We may be called to serve Him in the most unlikely places and under the most adverse conditions. It may be out in the countryside, far away from the King’s many activities in the city. Or it may be “among plants and hedges” of all kinds—hindrances that surround us, blocking our way. Perhaps we will be one of “the potters,” with our hands full of all types of pottery, accomplishing our daily tasks.

It makes no difference! The King who placed us “there” will come and dwell with us. The hedges, or hindrances, are right for us, or He will quickly remove them. And doesn’t it stand to reason that whatever seems to block our way may also provide for our protection? As for the pottery—it is exactly what He has seen fit to place in our hands and is for now “his work.” FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL

Go back to your garden plot, sweetheart! Go back till the evening falls, And tie your lilies and train your vines, Till for you the Master calls.

Go make your garden fair as you can, You will never work alone; Perhaps he whose plot is next to yours Will see it and mend his own.

Brightly colored sunsets and starry heavens, majestic mountains and shining seas, and fragrant fields and fresh-cut flowers are not even half as beautiful as a soul who is serving Jesus out of love, through the wear and tear of an ordinary, unpoetic life. FREDERICK WILLIAM FABER

The most saintly souls are often those who have never distinguished themselves as authors or allowed any major accomplishment of theirs to become the topic of the world’s conversation. No, they are usually those who have led a quiet inner life of holiness, having carried their sweet bouquets unseen, like a fresh lily in a secluded valley on the edge of a crystal stream. KENELM DIGBY

Is your place a small place? Tend it with care!—He set you there.

Is your place a large place? Guard it with care! He set you there.

Whate’er your place, it is Not yours alone, but His. He set you there.

JOHN OXENHAM

With infinite care and forethought God has chosen the best place in which you can do your best work for the world. You may be lonely, but you have no more right to complain than the lamp has, which has been placed in a niche to illumine a dark landing or a flight of dangerous stone steps.

The master of the house may have put you in a very small corner and on a very humble stand; but it is enough if it be His blessed will.

Someday He will pass by, and you shall light His steps as He goes forth to seek and save that which is lost; or you shall kindle some great light that shall shine like a beacon over the storm-swept ocean.

Thus the obscure Andrew was the means of igniting his brother Peter, when he brought him to Jesus.

SELECTED

When the Master of all the workmen called me into the field, I went for Him light and happy, the tools of His service to wield; Expectant of high position, as suited my lofty taste— When Lo! He set me weeding and watering down in the waste.

Such puttering down in the hedges! A task so thankless and small! Yet I stifled my vain discomfort and wrought for the Lord of all, Till, meeker grown, as nightly I sank to my hard-won rest I cared but to hear in my dreaming, “This one has done his best.”

The years have leveled distinctions, there is no more “great” nor “small”; Only faithful service counts with the Lord of all; And I know that, tilled with patience, the dreariest waste of clod Shall yield the perfect ideal planned in the heart of God.

SELECTED

Are you willing to be a “caulker of seams” (Ezekiel 27:9)?