There is nothing I can give you
which you have not;
but there is much, very much, that,
while I cannot give it, you can take.

No heaven can come to us unless our hearts
find rest in today. Take heaven!
No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in
this present instant. Take peace!

The gloom of the world is but a shadow.
Behind it, yet within our reach is joy.
There is radiance and glory in the darkness, could we but see,
and to see, we have only to look. I beseech you to look!

Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its gifts by
their covering, cast them away as ugly, or heavy or hard.
Remove the covering and you will find beneath it
a living splendor, woven of love, by wisdom, with power.

Welcome it, grasp it, touch the angel's hand
that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, a sorrow,
or a duty, believe me, that angel's hand is there, the gift is there,
and the wonder of an overshadowing presence.
Our joys, too; be not content with them as joys.
They, too, conceal diviner gifts.

Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty,
beneath its covering, that you will find
earth but cloaks your heaven.

Courage, then, to claim it, that is all. But courage you have,
and the knowledge that we are all pilgrims together,
wending through unknown country, home.

And so, at this time, I greet you.
Not quite as the world sends greetings, but with profound esteem
and with the prayer that for you, now and forever,
the day breaks, and the shadows flee away.

Why barter for such precious things,
If you would taste of Heaven?
Leave the heart that you can buy,
And take the One that's Given.