Perspective and Untapped Potential

Just shortly after World War 1 the United States went through a period of self-reflection. With 16 million dead this self-reflection included thoughts on religion and God. In 1925 religion was even put on trial in the John Scopes 'Monkey Trial' of Dayton, Tennessee. As people tried to cope with the destruction and trials they had faced they wondered about this man named Jesus and whether or not religion was actually making a change in their lives or in the world. It was during this time that Myra Brooks Welch wrote a poem that has deeply impacted my life since reading it and has increased my understanding of my Savior. The Touch of the Master’s Hand was published on February 26, 1921 in The Gospel Messenger. It beautifully describes something that metaphorically the Master, Jesus Christ, has amplified to it's true potential and made it more valuable. As we examine the poem we see that Welch has given us imagery that helps us understand this attribute of what the Savior can do for us.

We begin in an auction with an auctioneer that doesn't have much faith in an old violin:

’Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer

Thought it scarcely worth his while

To waste much time on the old violin,

But held it up with a smile:

“What am I bidden, good folks,” he cried,

“Who’ll start the bidding for me?”

“A dollar, a dollar”; then, “Two!” “Only two?

Two dollars, and who’ll make it three?

Three dollars, once; three dollars, twice;

Going for three—” But no,

Appearances and Redemption

Aragorn's appearance isn't much, but he sure is a lot more than he appears.

I cannot say that I have ever read a piece of poetry that truly changed me in one distinct moment. I do have a deep love for literature, however, most of that is made up by a conglomerate of stories that i have read or were read to me by my mother. My deepest affection for literature lies with the fantastical, the wonderfully unreal; the things so different and so amazing, that they become completely foreign to this life, like visiting another world. It should come as no surprise, then, that the most personally moving work of poetry that I have ever read wasn’t written by Robert Frost or William Shakespeare, but by J.R.R. Tolkien.