Life's Uncertainty Poem by Martha Lavinia Hoffman

These zigzag paths we travel
May change, we know not when,
Diverging far and farther,
To never meet again.
We trust no freak of fortune,
Fear no decree of fate;
We know God's chosen pathways
Lead all to Heaven's gate.

The years may crowd around us,
With faces strange and rude,
'Till time has come between us,
As some great multitude;
Yet we who wait with patience,
In each appointed place,
When the years have gone, shall stand
Immortal, face to face.

These troubled tossing breakers,
Ah! who can tell their power?
They sink the iron-clad vessel,
They float the frailest flower.
We know not who shall longest
Their ceaseless strife endure,
The weakest or the strongest
No safe return insure.

So changing and uncertain
Are all life's winding ways,
That, lost in contemplation,
My soul bows down and prays:
'O God, amid the mazes
Of life's uncertainty,
Teach us to love each other,
And leave the rest to Thee!'