Poems (Barker)/To Grandma on her 70th Birthday

by Alice J. Green Barker

TO GRANDMA.  ON HER 70th BIRTHDAY.

Seventy years through cloud and sunshine,
 Have you journeyed, patient one—
Ever when the gloom was thickest,
 You have said "His will be done."
Though He gives you pain and sorrow,
 Yet he gives you sunshine bright,
And a heart that in affliction
 Still finds beauty, love and light.

Seventy years, and star crowned angels,
 Stoop to bless your noble life;
Bringing promises, our dear one,
 Of a home with pleasure rife.
All along the path, dear Grandma,
 Which your patient feet have trod.
Are the flowers your hands have planted
 Springing up to meet their God.

'Tis the fruit for which He seeketh;
 By it you will there be known
When He numbereth up His jewels
 His beloved and His own.
Blessed friend, and comfort to us!
 All these years since babyhood,
When you spoke that tender language,
 Which by love is understood.

Well and true we learned to love you,
 And our earliest sense of bliss,
As in later years, dear Grandma,
 Centered round your loving kiss.
But if all the fond petitions,
 Reach the tender Shepherd's heart,
He will grant that many summers
 Pass e're we are called to part.