Learning's Work of Art (Version 1&2)

 Every so often I'm struck anew by the one thing we all have deeply in common;

our need for God's grace, and through that, more patience with each other!

. We are all broken, still-learning students!

(sorry, no photos)

internet is still not working well!

Version #1

Ah, Time plays tricks, it seems, and eases us from who we were

Whilst testing touch with lessons we are not quite ready for

Where the bare facts of yearning meet with human hand and heart

Shaping time’s no returning into Learning’s works of art

How readily the rush of moments runs through sound and sight

Each morning’s new how-do-you-do soon turns into good-night

As pomp and show of what we know (or thought we did) aha

Keeps students of life on their toes while subject to Time’s law

Then pray for love, the fool-proof, full proof of God’s Light/might within

To steer Thought’s powerhouse, the rudder for man’s flint of skin

Where Choice molds clay of day-to-day and yea-and-nay into

The life we live and leave behind when daily-grind is through

...where given Time enough we sift through shards of having held

Where felled castles of past’s postcards and hard mistakes, soft-meld

With happiness, that we confess, is not a Thing we clutch

But a heart full of thankfulness in spite of ‘such-and-such’

Ah, who can bear to shoulder care without the love of God

To fill this glove of flesh and blood and Soul and leave us awed

With the sacred awareness, that for all we should’ve/could’ve done

Grace rewards us with hope through love’s free gift; God’s only Son

Thus, all the ‘tricks’ that Time may play will never be enough

To steal the joy of life away; nothing can out-fox love

For love is kind and patient, not self-seeking, greedy, proud

Then, when we learn this Work of Heart it makes us laugh out loud

…and live without the fear of what-if’s weight to paralyze

…and give without the leer of greed to shackle us with lies

…and sing without a Thing to hold us back because we’ve learned

God’s Love, from the beginning is a gift no one has earned

© Janet Martin

 (version #2; order of stanzas reversed)

…then, live without the fear of what-if’s weight to paralyze

…and give without the leer of greed to shackle us with lies

…and sing without a Thing to hold us back because we’ve learned

God’s Love, from the beginning is a gift no one has earned

Thus, all the ‘tricks’ that Time may play will never be enough

To steal the joy of life away; nothing can out-fox love

For love is kind and patient, not self-seeking, greedy, proud

Then, when we learn this Work of Heart it makes us laugh out loud

 

Ah, who can bear to shoulder care without the love of God

To fill this glove of flesh and blood and Soul and leave us awed

With the sacred awareness, that for all we should’ve/could’ve done

Grace rewards us with hope through love’s free gift; God’s only Son

...where given Time enough we sift through shards of having held

Where felled castles of past’s postcards and hard mistakes, soft-meld

With happiness, that we confess, is not a Thing we clutch

But a heart full of thankfulness in spite of ‘such-and-such’

Then pray for love, the fool-proof, full proof of God’s Light/might within

To steer Thought’s powerhouse, the rudder for man’s flint of skin

Where Choice molds clay of day-to-day and yea-and-nay into

The life we live and leave behind when daily-grind is through

How readily the rush of moments runs through sound and sight

Each morning’s new how-do-you-do soon turns into good-night

As pomp and show of what we know (or thought we did) aha

Keeps students of life on their toes while subject to Time’s law

Ah, Time plays tricks, it seems, and eases us from who we were

Whilst testing touch with lessons we are not quite ready for

Where the bare facts of yearning meet with human hand and heart

Shaping time’s no returning into Learning’s works of art

 © Janet Martin