The Greatest Victories are Those Achieved in the Solitude of the Heart

I made a delightful discovery in the form of a very special book I've recently begun.
"Hinds Feet on High Places" by Hannah Hurnard is the story of the little ugly and deformed Much-Afraid and her journey up the mountains to the palace of her King. This thought-provoking allegory has encouraged and challenged me to reach for Him alone, and with everything I am. The following passage touched my heart so, that I was compelled to share it on our blog. :-)


Much-Afraid looked at him earnestly. " I have often wondered about the wild flowers," she said. "It does seem strange that such unnumbered multitudes should bloom in the wild places of the earth where perhaps nobody ever sees them and the goats and the cattle can walk over them and crush them to death. They have so much beauty and sweetness to give and no one on whom to lavish it, nor who will even appreciate it."
The look the Shepherd turned on her was very beautiful. "Nothing my Father and I have made is ever wasted," he said quietly, " and the little wild flowers have a wonderful lesson to teach. They offer themselves so sweetly and confidently and willingly, even if it seems that there is no one to appreciate them. Just as though they sang a joyous little song to themselves, that it is so happy to love, even though one is not loved in return.
"I must tell you a great truth, Much-Afraid, which only the few understand. All the fairest beauties in the human soul, it's greatest victories, and its most splendid achievements are always those which no one else knows anything about, or can only dimly guess at. Every inner response of the human heart to Love and every conquest over self-love is a new flower on the tree of Love.
"Many a quiet, ordinary, and hidden life, unkown to the world, is a veritable garden in which Loves flowers and fruits have come to such perfection that it is a place of delight where the King of Love himself walks and rejoices with his friends. Some of my servents have indeed won great visible victories and are rightly loved and reveranced by other men, but always their greatest victories are like the wild flowers, those which no one knows about. Learn this lesson now, down here in the valley, Much-Afraid, and when you get to the steep places of the mountains it will comfort you."