February Filldyke

Acquainted with the Night

BY ROBERT FROST

I have been one acquainted with the night.

I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.

I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.

I have passed by the watchman on his beat

And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet

When far away an interrupted cry

Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;

And further still at an unearthly height,

One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right. 

I have been one acquainted with the night.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47548/acquainted-with-the-night

Apparently the Romans used to call the British February "February filldyke" as there was so much rain. And this February has lived up to its Roman reputation.   

So I was looking for rain poems and came across this odd and powerful Robert Frost one - not about rain as such, but with rain in it and well worth a read.  And perhaps it ties in with what I am going to say about "the original serpent".

Last Thursday I got some energy from somewhere. I finished my study for the meeting, watched the Broadcast from the Governing Body, did a bit of witnessing (letters, fb), and made an apple crumble for himself. He had bought some cooking apples in a pointed sort of way when we did our grocery shopping, and so I took the hint.  This Thursday, everything is going to be an effort, and I will have to be at the meeting in Pixel Form this evening as given my hearing aids have packed up on me, the only way I will be able to hear is via the computer headphones.  This new med, which is supposed to be an anti-depressant (though I am not taking it for that reason) is making me both depressed and tired, even though I am sleeping heavily, as though I had been clubbed.

I have an appointment with the Audiologist tomorrow and just have to hope he can fix the hearing aids...

The photo is one Col took of a lovely grass snake. And like all snakes it has such an innocent face, and is very beautiful.   I say that because I want to talk about "the original serpent" - not a snake at all, but Satan the devil - the one who Jesus called "the father of the lie".

The Bible tells us simply and clearly that the whole world, all its institutions, lie in the power of "the wicked one", Satan.  

And it also tells us that Satan is deceiving the whole world.

So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth,  and his angels were hurled down with him." Revelation 12:9

If those words are true, then Satan is pulling the strings and is deceiving the entire inhabited earth, and we are being lied to a scale we can probably hardly comprehend.  Wouldn't it explain why there are so many conspiracy theories?  We perceive the hands behind the curtain, and see that they are not benevolent ones, but without knowing what the Inspired Scriptures tell us, we can so easily be persuaded to blame and turn on each other.

And it is so important to know that, while in the poem Robert Frost talks about being well acquainted with the night, the Inspired Scriptures promise us a wonderful dawn is coming.

People sometimes see Revelation as a frightening book, maybe all about the end of the world. Whereas what in fact is does describe is the end of the current wicked system of things on the earth, and the restoration of paradise earthwide.

This is what it promises us:

With that I heard a loud voice from the throne say: “Look! The tent of God is with mankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them. And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more,
 neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away."