Where Hope Is...Not

Happy Leap-day!
Especially to those celebrating their birthdays today!

 "Come now, let us settle the matter," says the LORD.

 "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; 

though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

Isa.1:18

Pink flares and fades beyond plush grades of freshly fallen snow

Soon the whole sky is like a sigh of pastel overflow

The heath above earth’s pristine glove rouses a tender rhyme

Before the air becomes the stair the sun begins to climb

Where hope is not some routine jot tendered to to-do's chase

But God's abiding rod and staff; the autograph of grace

See how dawn’s glow ignites the snow; gold gilds white through and through

As mercy wields, o'er hills and fields, morn's olden orb anew

The showcase of faith, hope and love beams with Time’s practiced grin

The crepuscule of neb’lous wool withdrawn; Dawn wins again

Where hope is not Positive Thought derived by mortal breath

Hope is redemption; the exemption from eternal death

Then with the voice of earth rejoice and praise mankind’s Best Friend

No matter what, the love of God is faithful without end

The beauty we behold unfolds a glimpse of what hope grants

If we believe and then receive Mercy’s inheritance

Where hope is not circumstance-wrought, but purchased at great cost

For God so loved the world He gave His Son to save the lost

Pink flares and fades; care's escapades fuel what prayers become

For none of us can know the Thus ensconced in moment-sum

But we are clean as the pure sheen of freshly fallen snow

If we confess our sinfulness (for God’s word tells us so)

Where hope is not karma’s mascot that lucky stars achieve

Hope is the love that secures us the moment we believe

© Janet Martin