Showing posts with label journey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label journey. Show all posts

Thursday, June 1, 2023

All Aboard (on our way to meeting the Lord)


Happy Birthday, Jim!
A glimpse at his view this morning!
(from New Jersey and New York)


I wonder how many miles Jim has traveled in 37 years of truck-driving!
Today Jim has reached the milestone of 59 years of life!
What a blessing, not to be taken for granted!
 
Whether viewed over the hood of a truck or otherwise,
the scenery of our lives is as varied and diverse as the journeys,
Some reject the Conductor, others revere and love Him, but
all will appear before Him when we come to the end of life's journey,
where one of two eternities awaits;
 forever with Him or forever separated.
With Him= forever joy, life and light/Day.
Without Him = forever anguish, death and darkness.

Mark 16:16
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, 
but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

***

All aboard, cries the Conductor as the new-born baby cries
As the first breath births life’s journey of the Soul that never dies
From He, who our days has written before one has come to be
From God, the Giver and Taker of fleeting mortality
Courses the measure of moments, tick by tock its torrent flows
Forcing the child soon to grapple with the thorns beneath the rose

All aboard, cries the Conductor at the portal of sunrise
Rife with life’s inevitable ups and downs of lows and highs
Subtle carousel of seasons spins, and spills what soon is spent
My, how sacred is our answer to He who life’s lease has lent
Where love is His utter reason, while faith musters flying leaps
No passenger is forgotten in the promises He keeps

All aboard, cries the Conductor. Only He/God can see the whole
How near is the final station/Destination where dust is brushed from the Soul
Thus, we at the faithful mercy of God’s goodness, truth and grace
Ought to ponder oft the moment when we meet Him face to face
Careful in how we maneuver every hill and hairpin curve
For this is how we will prove who we believe and who we serve

All aboard, cries the Conductor, as onto dawn’s car we climb
Where today some will be ushered from This Thoroughfare of Time
Thus, we should regard with honor every opportunity
To be loving to each other, fellow travelers are we
Until one by one each swaying, Soul-hinged pendulum is stilled
As each day of grace, prewritten has been offered and fulfilled

Hark, across Time's landscape tolls the holy call of, 'all aboard!'
On this very sacred passage, on our way to meet the Lord

© Janet Martin

Psalm 139:14-16
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

Sometimes when Jim calls me
he is parked at a railway waiting for the train to pass...




over the years there's been a lot of this...
(exchanging empty thermos and lunch-bag for full)



Friday, February 18, 2022

Never, For One Wayward Wink...


A special treat for you and me today!
Sunrise photo with a different skyline!
Jim (truckdriver-husband) sent this photo
 from somewhere in the very chill hills of
very Northern Ontario
(no phone reception when I tried to call and find out where)
(update: Schreiber, Ont.)


'Surely the morning gold and pink
Is the hem of His gown'


 Because I have yet to walk the mile
of those who mourn the loss of a parent, sibling,
son, daughter, spouse, etc. I cannot pen
the places that those losses must lead Love through
and I do not pretend to know what they know
but I can imagine, 
and hurt
and pray
and weep with those who weep
and plead to God 
to
bless those who mourn (Matt.5:4)
💔

What comfort to know
that never for a single, wayward wink
does The Lord, our Shepherd 
shift His gaze from His beloved Sheep...
🙏

Between miles yet to live and love
And miles that we have trod
Pray, where we are we find enough
In the kind love of God

Through wildernesses of today
Of mortal want and woe
Our Sovereign God still leads the way
Love's manna falls like snow

Enough, always enough, to feed
The cries of you and I
Exactly when, how much we need
His mercy will supply

The Pillar of His Promises
Will never shift or fade
But leads in paths of righteousness
In this day He has made

Toward the Promised Land we face
And run life’s race with joy
And lean on Him and trust His grace
That nothing can destroy

For, never for one wayward wink
Does He forsake His own
Surely the morning gold and pink
Is the hem of His gown

Surely goodness and mercy shall
Follow us all our days
Until forever we will dwell
In the house of His praise

© Janet Martin

 Familiar and forever precious...

Psalm 23 KJV

 The Lord is my shepherd; 
I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
 he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul:
 he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
 I will fear no evil: 
for thou art with me; 
thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
 thou anointest my head with oil; 
my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: 
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Translation below...



Translation of lyrics...

So take my hands
So nimm denn meine Hände
and lead me
Und führe mich
Until my happy end
Bis an mein selig Ende
And forever.
Und ewiglich.
I don't like to go alone
Ich mag allein nicht gehen,
Not a step;
Nicht einen Schritt;
where you will go and stand
Wo du wirst gehn und stehen,
Then take me with you.
Da nimm mich mit.
wrapped in our mercy
In dein Erbarmen hülle
my weak heart
Mein schwaches Herz
And do it completely still
Und mach es gänzlich stille
In joy and pain;
In Freud und Schmerz;
Let rest at your feet
Laß ruhn zu deinen Füßen
your poor child;
Dein armes Kind;
It wants to close its eyes
Es will die Augen schließen
And believe blindly.
Und glauben blind.
Even if I don't feel anything
Wenn ich auch gleich nichts fühle
of your power
Von deiner Macht,
You lead me to my goal
Du führst mich doch zum Ziele,
Even through the night.
Auch durch die Nacht.
So take my hands
So nimm denn meine Hände
and lead me
Und führe mich
Until my happy end
Bis an mein selig Ende
And forever.
Und ewiglich.



Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Life's Odyssey


I'm sorta having a life-is-but-a-dream moment picking the last gr.12 grad photos

Sorta like a dream sometimes, these moments turned to fact
Sorta like a clock that chimes Time’s disappearing act
Sorta like a love song strummed on strings of subtlety
Sorta like a mural hung where only thought can see
Sorta like a blur of summer-autumn-winter-spring
Sorta like an upward spark; this strange and one-time Thing
Sorta like a puppy learning lessons more than once
Sorta like a locket, dear, that smiles and tears ensconce
Sorta like a tug-of-war twixt hold and letting go
Sorta like a drink we pour; a mix of wonder-woe
Sorta like a poem pressed on pages of thin air
Sorta like a pilot’s first run, testing wings of prayer
Sorta like a journey on a gurney made of sod
Sorta like a leap of faith; life’s odyssey to God

© Janet Martin

Saturday, February 10, 2018

We Walk, Crawl, Leap, Fall, Die...



Sometimes when reading 'the greats ' of poetry
a voice mocks me with 'why do you even try?!!'
For the same reason 
they did, I am sure
...for only a poet knows the 'word-lust and lure' 
that it seems, the poet must
for better or worse,
endure 

and a trek on skis through fences and trees
stirred today's poem...
This poem is from a gem of a book published in 1885.
 I found it a few years ago in a thrift store!

 (for easier reading click on image)



We walk on ages of leaf-lavished plunder
Hobos of hunger, we ravage its clime
Derelict darlings of God-authored wonder
Flickers of fancy on fields old as time

Sometimes we crawl beneath fir-boughs and fences
Hunting for something that just isn’t there
We, creatures cursed with a thirst for formed answers
Fumble for more than faith’s life-blood of prayer

We leap on landscapes once loved by forefathers
Tended and tilled by their blood, sweat and tears
Why in the scheme of progress and its authors
Should we think we are owed more than our peers

We fall, the Giver of grace bends to help us
He is hope’s kind ‘upsy-daisy, my sweet’
He never turns a blind eye nor forgets us
He is the Planter of blooms at our feet

We die the death of each breath-gifted being
This is the flip-side of all life bestowed
Then, when this body yields taste-touch-hear-seeing
We meet the One to whom our life is owed

We walk, crawl, leap and fall, all of us learning
Time is a tight-rope twixt cradle and grave
We, like acrobats balance awe and yearning
Inching toward The Fulfillment we crave

© Janet Martin

Philippians 3:14 
I press toward the mark 
for the prize 
of the high calling of God 
in Christ Jesus.


Tuesday, March 11, 2014

This Day is like a Vessel





We rise and scan the cloud-strewn acres out to the sky-line
This day is like a vessel on the swarthy seas of time
And we, its deckhands take our posts upon its waves of sod
For we will give account to our Captain; He is God

Though storm may toss and wind may vex and we are frail in size
The Hand upon the rudder of this ship is kind and wise
He does not leave us helpless in the fury of life’s ill
But guides the vessel we call Day according to His will

Toward a Port beyond this rise and fall four-season main
We board the vessel that will carry us from grief and pain
Much needs to be accomplished on its journey from dawn’s dew
And so we ask our Captain ‘what will you have me to do?’

© Janet Martin

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Our Journey of Unknowns...a sonnet




The unknown murmurs on the burnished brink
Slipping its gossamer from east to west
We cannot know what shapes its ether-pink
Though to-do lists and duty may suggest
The Weaver of each moment intercedes
Cupping His gracious will beneath our own
We spout our wants while He supplies our needs
Melding in moment-thread, unknown to known
And while the shaft of new day rends the deeps
And skylines re-appear, a circle-scope
Of east, south, west and north; His visage keeps
Vast eons anchored in His steadfast hope
We place our fears within His faithful hand
Trusting the God of sky and sea and land

Gladness, sadness, flow'r and shower merge
The darlings of His never-changing grace
Embark on tides of morning’s mercy-surge
Ignorant of the breadth of His embrace
For we will not escape His tender gaze
The sky, the land and sea are but the shell
Where shadows of His potent wonder splays
In whispered fringes of Heaven and hell
And though the unknown spreads its light-less veil
Across our tarnished visage; Faithful God
Releases this day’s moments from Love’s grail
His fount of Goodness nurtures soul and sod
We stuff out mouths; Hunger is not destroyed
The infant and the aged bear its void

The earth is lathered green in Spring’s caress
Before the sheen of winter binds its girth
Last year's unknowns are known; grief, happiness
Unfold and fold again, four-season's worth
Before another year falls to the crypt
Where Time; the fulcrum twixt unknown and known
Establishes in present; yet has slipped
The filament of centuries to stone
We bow beneath the Hand of Eden’s seal
The constellations also bow to Him
For none transcends the One who moves Time's wheel
The God of ages cups our wish and whim
Where known and unknown subsist, juxtaposed
The rose exists within the bud, still closed

© Janet Martin