Blade of Grass

The meadow and valley are cloth’d in grass,
    A beautiful and emerald green;
From which a tiny, tender blade
    Begins to grow, to eyes unseen;
So slowly it pushes up through the earth,
    With mighty pow’r, that’s not its own,
And opens reaching to the sun,
    While catching light that it is shown.
Now the pow’r that works so mightily
    In a tiny tender blade of grass,
Will even work more mightily,
    In the man that trusts the Lord.

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Instrumental – Guitars (from Canada)

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The text for this song was based on a few pages from the book The Gospel in Creation by E.J. Waggoner (chapter: The Third Day, p. 94-97):

There could be no more sure way to undermine the gospel, and rob it of its power, than the substitution of the teachings of “science falsely so called” for the simple word of God. God has been relegated to the rear, and is regarded as afar off. So although many do accept that gospel which is preached to them, and do sincerely wish salvation from sin, evolution, even though they have no conscious belief in it, has so taken the edge off of faith that they are not able to come close to the Lord, to walk and talk with Him, and to make Him an active factor in every affair of life.

But let us note some simple facts that will justify one, even in this scientific age, in believing that the word of the Lord, which in the beginning said, “Let the earth bring forth grass”, is still causing the earth to bring forth grass. Who has not watched the springing forth of the tender blade of grass or corn? Have you not at times passed along by the field of corn, and noticed a tiny blade pushing its way to the surface, in spite of heavy clods of earth? Have you not seen a portion of the baked earth heaved up, and, looking beneath, have seen that it was held up by a tiny spire, so tender that it could not support its own weight if released from its position? The blade had as yet scarcely any color, and was but little more than water, for if you had crushed it in your fingers, there would have been scarcely anything but moisture on your hand. Yet this tiny thing was pushing away from before it a clod of earth ten thousand times its own weight.

Whence comes this power? Is it something that is inherent in the grass? Try it, and see. Take that blade of grass that is full grown. Select a small clod of earth, not half the size of the one that was pushed away from before it when it was crowding its way to the surface of the ground, and put it upon the grass. What is the result? Anybody can tell you. The grass is crushed to the ground. It has no power of itself. Test it again.

Take that blade that is pushing its way to the surface from beneath that clod, and remove it from the ground. You take it in your fingers and it lops down over the side of your hand. It cannot stand upright. Scarcely anything can be thought of that is weaker. And yet but a few moments before, it was standing erect, and bearing a burden infinitely heavier than itself. Here is a miracle that is wrought hundreds of millions of times every year, and yet there are those who say that the age of miracles is past.

Will any scientist tell what is the source of the marvelous power exhibited in the grass, or in the bursting of the hard shell of the peach stone by the little germ within? There is something there that no microscope can discover, and no chemical analysis can detect. We can see the manifestation of power, but cannot see the power itself. Skeptics may sneer if they please, but we are content to believe that the power is nothing else than the power of God’s word. The word of the Lord said in the beginning, “Let the earth bring forth grass”, and the power of that word causes the grass to spring forth in spite of all the clods of earth.

There is no power in the grass, but that most feeble instrument is used to exhibit to man the mighty power of God. In that every man may learn a lesson if he will.

Did I say that we were content to believe that it is the power of the word of God that is manifested in the blade of grass? Nay, not content merely, but glad that we can recognize God’s power in small things. In that we see the assurance that God is able to do for us “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us”. Ephesians 3:20. For the same power that works in the grass of the field also works in the man who puts his trust in the Lord.

“All flesh is grass.” Isaiah 40:6. Man is as weak and frail as the grass, having absolutely no power in himself; yet he is able to do all things through Christ, who strengthens him.

Tags: 1888, Faith, Gospel, Power, Righteousness, Waggoner