Earth Before Heaven...

 We wrap our arms around the fleeting charms of precious girl and boy...

(the first line of this poem was inspired by Eager Little Girl
in the top left corner of the photo-collage)

We press our eager faces to the places we caress with joy

We wrap our arms around the fleeting charms of precious girl and boy

We vow to keep within our hearts a fragment of the art that spills

In seasoned form; the flower-storm of hymns unfurled in flawless frills

But even as we feel fond measures fade on fingertips and lips

Another comes to steal our gaze and amaze us with fellowships

Of love in all its sundry ways; where joy is not at loss for long

Because God tunes the harp that plays the prelude to His perfect song

The enemy of hopes and dreams schemes but can never thwart the Hand

That touches strings that heed the Maestro always in complete command

Then when love breaks our hearts and souls smart with the bitter sting of grief

The Gilead of woods and gardens showcases God in a leaf

Where, as we take a close-up look at minstrels in earth’s orchestra

Wonder overflows hunger’s cup and fills would-be despair with awe

Then we acquainted with love’s cares feel like a flower’s next of kin

As balm of bloom sings like a lark and keeps the dark from closing in

© Janet Martin

...and so it begins; that next-of-kin feeling flowers give us!
Next-of-kin with much we can learn from them!

They are not prejudiced
or anxious.

They never compare themselves to a fellow-lily.

They simply bloom where they are planted

and give God the glory!

Praying we can all, in troubled times, and disappointment, cling to the ageold message
of the verses below with humble hearts of faith...

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

f 28And why do you worry about clothes? 

Consider how the lilies of the field grow: They do not labor or spin.

 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was adorned like one of these.

 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, 

which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, 

will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Matt. 6:27-30