On Finding The Best of The Best

It is not hard to praise God for blessings we can see with our eyes;

the beauty of the earth and sky, 

the bounty of harvest,

mortal need supplied,

the beautiful child...

(and to think I sometimes dare to doubt or question 

the Designer and Creator of flowers!

 one example among ten-thousand-thousand wonders!!)

God knows the heart; its wilderness and its wellspring!

Its throne and its Lord/lord.

He sees the authenticity or lack of

Thankfulness!

Sometimes His Best is not grasped at first glance...

Not all of life's best is laughter

Nor sunshine, when elements smile

Not all joy waits for gladness after

The sorrow we suffered a while

World-wealth is not life's best treasure

Nor beauty, but feast for the eye

To discover life's fullest pleasure

No measure of money can buy

Not all knowledge sires wise students

Experience-worth laid to waste

Where lack of humility's prudence

Cannot see beyond touch and taste

Life's best is a timely word spoken

To comfort, or caution where sight

Cannot show how God holds hearts, broken

Or ministers songs in the night

The world, for all it has to offer

Cannot bring us peace in the storm

Cannot usher joy to a coffer

That seems stripped, when judged by its form 

Until we love and trust life's Giver

For beauty beyond the façade 

The best that life's best can deliver

Are fleeting, half-glimpses of God 

What seems worst-of-worst is often

The wisdom of God in disguise

Where Best of the Best seeks to soften

Hard hearts/parts with the tears from His eyes 

Janet Martin

Rom.5:1-5

Therefore, having been justified by faith,

 [a]we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 

2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, 

and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

 3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, 

knowing that tribulation produces [b]perseverance; 

4 and perseverance, [c]character; and character, hope.

 5 Now hope does not disappoint, 

because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts

 by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Read the whole glorious chapter HERE

For the Beauty of the Earth (Michelle Swift, Hymn with Lyrics

Of Today, Newly Born

Today's poem was kindled as dawn's wave of gold

rolled across the waking world, like a heavenly

banner unfurled, proclaiming the sovereignty of God! 

So far today's opportunities have brought

a sudden to-go breakfast for Jim,

up w-a-ay before the sun!

a bit of being still...

A half-ish peck 'o peppers, picked

and ready to pickle!! 

Behold daybreak's grand sky

Like a gold banner, morn

Dissolves the dark with infant cry

Of Today, newly born

To celebrate its birth

Is a very fine thing

To praise the God of Heav'n and earth

In courts of thanksgiving 

No matter what it bears

Wherever in the world

We are; the Giver of life cares

With fresh mercies unfurled

What privilege to be

Beneficiaries 

Where Favour's kind fidelity 

Would fill ten thousand seas

What sacred 'second chance'

To pursue joy and peace

To the glory of He who grants

Today's newly-born lease

No matter what succeeds 

The verge of hidden things

God's faithful Providence precedes 

Whatever today brings 

Janet Martin

What wonderful worth each day brings when 

'whether you/we eat or drink or whatever you/we do, 

(we) do it all for the glory of God.

1 Cor.10:31

Have you tried this tongue-twister recently? 😄

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.

If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,

Where's the peck of pickled peppers that Peter Piper picked?

 

The Autumn of Middle Age or Of Modern Day Trade Winds...

Someone just a few years ahead of me, reassured me before I turned sixty,

that the sixties are not Old Age yet, but the Autumn or sunset years of middle age...

I rather like that perspective! 

A modern-day trade wind doth blow and scatters leaves like saffron snow

And trades vistas of woodland-green for vermilion and scarlet sheen

Once upon summer's yesterday we thought that it was here to stay

Oh, how we laughed in the sunshine that kisses cheeks and rustles vines

Till a chill trade-wind blew and drew us from its sun-warm avenue

Autumn, with startling hues and cheers, frees a fresh train of pioneers

Bidding them slow the hurried pace that seems to hound the human race

Until Trade-winds as old as time waken prospects past youth's fair prime

....making us humbler in our stance and more aware of what life grants

So we kick off our dancing shoes and kneel on ground, rich with adieus 

Then wag our heads 'aha, aha' as we acquiesce time's livelong law

Where none escapes trade's winds or wars as we are drawn to foreign shores  

...and like all who have gone before, if God grants three score years or more

We join the Autumn-seasoned ranks with purer praise and meeker thanks 

In the Autumn of middle age, we sense time's swifter turn of page

As stiffer trade winds start to blow and sting with Winter's hints of snow

...so in life's Autumn sunset years (before its swift score disappears)

Lord, teach us to embrace its clime by living one day at a time

...not peering with foreboding dread to Winter's world looming ahead

But with gladness gratitude brings, because the Lord has done great things

Janet Martin

Ps.126:3

The Lord has done great things for us,
And we are glad.

Autumn Is Come

Happy First Day of Fall!

Hail, cuppa tea, spice-ecstasy of cloves and cardamom 

And whole new ways to cherish days because Autumn is come 🍂

When I read this poem below, in a birthday gift book from a friend,

it kindled my own Autumn is Come poem-fire...

nothing compared to this gem,

but still, penned with love for Autumn's Creator!

Where gaudy plumes, a-top their tombs wave colourful farewells ...

Autumn is come; the sunny sum of summer days gives way

To frosty morn and fields of corn's brittle and rustling lay

The chestnut sheds it prickly threads; the blue jay shrieks and scolds

The verdant sheen of virgin green mutates to reds and golds

Autumn is come; season of plum and pumpkin pageantry

Of cozy clothes and rosy glows on apple-cheeks and we/me 

Of menus shucked and picked and plucked through labour of our hands

As summer yields gardens and fields to autumnal demands

Autumn is come; amber and rum-hued ambience imbues

The rousing air as treetops flare beneath yon welkin blues 

Creation draws worship's hurrahs from Beauty's wonderment 

Where earth and sky are charted by God's ancient covenant 

Autumn is come; farewell, sweet summer's sultry afternoon

Welcome, fond days that brim with praise for lavish harvest-boon

For orchard-loot as ripened fruit plummets like falling stars

With muted thud, in haloes, ruddy and ready for jars 

Autumn is come; we sense a drum-roll-like sea-song in shells   

Where gaudy plumes, a-top their tombs wave colourful farewells 

Where thistledown unfurls its crown in silver parachutes 

Where we appraise time's hallowed days to gather harvest's fruits 

Autumn is come; we are not glum though summer disappears

To everything from spring to spring, there is a season, dears

Its law ordained and awe-sustained by God's pow'r undefined

He stirs the seed with fruit to feed the need of humankind

He bends the earth with nature's mirth, and tends Time's transient toll 

Each season rife with joys of life to gladden heart and soul

Hail, cuppa tea, spice-ecstasy of cloves and cardamom 

And whole new ways to cherish days because Autumn is come 

Janet Martin  

 

That Which Hope Veils or With Quietness and Confidence

The old week ended with a hard day's work in the garden...

(I had a bit of a 'what if we get frost?!! panic- moment 

on that crisp morning, so I picked all the ripening tomatoes)

and then, because our generous neighbour lent us his loader we

pulled out a lot of plants as well...

At break time Neighbour's puppy came for some Jim-love...

 

A new week begins and who knows what waits, but God!

What perfect reason then, to proceed in step with God

How do we begin to do that?

With godly repentance that leads to salvation without regret!

Without regret because when God forgives

He remembers our sin no more!

Because what God gives this world cannot begin to comprehend

2 Corinthians 7:10

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation without regret,

but worldly sorrow brings death.

Isa.30:15

For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel:

“In returning and rest you shall be saved;

In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”

Isaiah 48:17

Thus says the LORD your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

“I am the LORD your God, who teaches you for your benefit,

who directs you in the way you should go.

The end that waits beyond the part of seeing, choosing, doing, oh

Of loving God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, then fellowman

Of trusting through the thick and thin of joy and sorrow's high and low

Until the end that will begin that which hope veils of Master Plan

...where wage of unrepentant sin is death; the gift of God is life

To all who yield their lives to Him in obedience, humbly awed

Where what is seen is temporal; where what hope veils awaits the knife

Of final breath; and the eternal aftermath of life with God 

...where we endure the hardship of love's discipline from He who cares

Like all good fathers should, enough to suffer reproof that corrects

So we revere, with diligence the part that hope yet veils with prayers

In quietness and confidence His strength sustains where He directs 

...until the day when we present the body He formed and gave breath

To do His work; to be content while hope yet veils the consequence 

May we throw off all earthly ties that entangle and end in death

And fix our eyes upon faith's Prize with quietness and confidence 

Janet Martin

Inspired in part as well by Heb.12

Be Still My Soul - Mount Royal Kantorei

Lyrics

Author: Kathrina von Schlegel (1752); 

Translator: Jane Borthwick (1855)

Tune: FINLANDIA

Published in 221 hymnals

1. Be still, my soul! the Lord is on your side;

Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;

Leave to your God to order and provide;

In ev'ry change he faithful will remain.

Be still, my soul! your best, your heav’nly friend

Thru' thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

2. Be still, my soul! your God does undertake

To guide the future as he has the past;

Your hope, your confidence, let nothing shake;

all now mysterious shall be bright at last.

Be still, my soul! the waves and winds still know

His voice who ruled them while he lived below.

3. Be still, my soul! when dearest friends depart

And all is darkened in the vale of tears,

Then shall you better know his love, his heart,

Who comes to soothe your sorrow and your fears.

Be still, my soul! your Jesus can repay

From his own fullness all he takes away.

4. Be still, my soul! the hour is hast'ning on

When we shall be forever with the Lord,

When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,

Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.

Be still my soul! when change and tears are past,

All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

Dear September or, From a Poet's Stuttering...

Ps.148:1-6

Praise the Lord.[a]

Praise the Lord from the heavens;

praise him in the heights above.

2 Praise him, all his angels;

praise him, all his heavenly hosts.

3 Praise him, sun and moon;

praise him, all you shining stars.

4 Praise him, you highest heavens

and you waters above the skies.

5 Let them praise the name of the Lord,

for at his command they were created,

6 and he established them for ever and ever—

he issued a decree that will never pass away.

Happy, happy, final summer weekend of 2026!!

How grandly the gateway to summer's last Saturday, flung ajar!

White and purple aster-oceans, billow in gardens, exiled

Save by He who heaps earth's passion on September's smorgasbord...

my daughter just sent me the above photos, (used with permission) because

they were the perfect fit for today's poem and because

she was feeling exactly like me...thinking this year she won't fall in love with fall, then

something sparks and BAM!! head over heels we fall for fall!

You rush rapture's rivers through us; summer's last hurrah runs wild

Overflowing nature's storehouse with gold, no miser can hoard

White and purple aster-oceans, billow in gardens, exiled

Save by He who heaps earth's passion on September's smorgasbord

Your heavens declare God's glory; modern-day psalmists gaze, awed

As your ink spills a love story that surpasses mortal pen

As you bend vineyard and orchard with fruited favour from God 

As you seal the days of summer with Time's plum-pungent amen 

You must be an ardent lover; Hydrangea and sedum blush 

On your arm, butterflies hover, zinnia and salvia founts

Sparkle in a plumed piazza buzzing with the final rush

Of hummingbirds, bees and crickets; somewhere Jack Frost lurks and counts

...down Fair Flower's numbered hours, before he exacts his brass 

But for now you gild spilled bowers with an affront to his kiss   

Mauve milkweed, mullein-fringed fences, goldenrod and silver-grass

As you kindle summered senses with pumpkin and squash hued bliss

Dear September, you awaken a song of love and lament

Torn between scenes time has taken and its undefeated law  

Gently, where summer still lingers, where beauty is never spent 

You ease the grip of our fingers from summer, with autumn-awe 

...and chart pathways of osmosis through a confusion of blooms

Tangles of larkspur and cosmos catch at heart-strings, fluttering 

Where farewell's unflustered courtship draws us through disheveled rooms

Rousing humbled hymns of worship from a poet's stuttering   

Janet Martin

You must be an ardent lover; Hydrangea and sedum blush... 

 Tangles of larkspur and cosmos catch at heart-strings, fluttering...

 

Dear Lucy, Till We Meet (Over There)

Thank-you everyone for your beautiful thoughts, messages, cards,

 gifts and prayers this week. Deeply treasured!

I'm not sure if the two-year mark will close the collection of Dear Lucy poems,

but it perhaps might...to everything there is a season.

Yesterday both Lucy and her husband's sisters and sister-in-laws gathered

at their place to work and remember Lucy again, and touch the plants she planted

and fall-clean the home she poured such happiness and love into,

and to bless and encourage her family in a very practical way.

This motto in the laundry room reminded me of an important part in grief's journey...

Though it may be speaking of flowers it applies to life's garden as well,

don't you think??

To let go of grief is not to let go of the loved one we miss

(sometimes it can feel that way)

but, to try to cherish more intentionally, humbly, and fully the time/life we still have.

When I wrote today's poem a week or two ago I thought it would be the one

to share yesterday, but it turned out not to be.

Instead it will close out 'the week of' with tender reflection and love 🙏

Dear Lucy,

I'll never forget that solemn occasion

When loved ones gathered, to lay you to rest

When hearts grief-shattered yet cheered by salvation

Were comforted thus, in sorrow's sudden test

I'll never forget the tear-joyous chorus

'Amazing grace, oh, how sweet, sweet the sound'

While rain-misted breeze sighed through trees around us

We stood with heads bowed, on farewell's holy ground

...and found in the depth of death's undisguised hour

Someone who knew our pain, through and through

Comfort and courage beyond human power

Holds/helps/heals us till we cross death's threshold too

...into the light of our Glorious Saviour

Where no tearful sorrow or parting will be

Into the triumph of hope's final favour

Where we will dwell throughout eternity

Till then, while we tend to Time's holy duty

Pray, we may discover, in this broken world

Through God, the breath-taking, unearthly Beauty

Of Joy like a banner from Heaven, unfurled

I'll never forget what changed life forever

Dear Lucy, I (we) will miss you every day

But God grants what no circumstance can sever

His grace is sufficient, come whatever may

I'll never forget, but love with intention

Those still within reach of arms, voice and prayer

While cherishing ways, too many to mention

That I (we) miss you so, till we meet 'over there'  

Janet Martin

The scripture reference put on the chalkboard in Lucy's kitchen 2 years ago

still applies...

Romans 8:28
And we know that God works all things together for the good

 of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.

A friend sent me this song last night.

Lucy would have loved it!

To everyone missing someone,

may it bless you today!

Brandon Heath - "Can We Go Home Now?"