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Monday, June 7, 2021

For We Who Tread The Thread of Numbered Days...



 

The ice-cream truck was such a special thrill last night
to celebrate a whole bunch of family birthdays!

I kept saying 'ch-e-e-e-ese' to try to get their attention, but, well...
they were deliciously distracted! 😋😄


So much birthday-joy already
celebrating so much to be thankful for
to the Giver of life's gift!


Meal cooked by one daughter and son-in-law...(last night)



 
Cake baked by another daughter for double celebration;
both parent's birthdays...

We get stretched out of comfort zones with or without approval’s nod
We start to feel in joints and bones the impact of life’s tug and prod
Futile to wish we could turn back the hands of time taking its toll
But take stock of this skin-bone rack; it is the Chariot of the Soul

We start to feel the subtle keel as scales of age begin to tip
Toward a stage, once so surreal, before our wheels began to slip
The stern command and upper hand of Father’s Time’s insistent gait
No matter how craftily planned, nobody can manipulate

This gift that always steals the young collects itself in numbered years
It peals from daybreak’s golden gong then rolls westward to join its peers
And takes us by age-old surprise; Time is both gentleman and brute
He tames the tiger in our eyes with Wonder’s sweeter substitute

How common day-to-day appears to we, aboard time’s teeming barge
Where one-by-one we disappear as death collects its chosen charge
Where none can order or predict who will be next to disembark
And meet the Giver of life’s gift as time flies upward like a spark

Cherish this gift but bear in mind the fugitive flight of its toll
This dust-to-dust we leave behind is but the Chariot of the Soul
An essence that remains concealed until that solemn, sacred day
When the gift’s Purpose is revealed as mortal wrapping falls away

Because life is a gift from God we do not authorize or choose
The why or wherefore of its rod, the tender tenure of its hues
The precious part of you and I is to revere with grateful praise
The One who grants the grace whereby we tread the thread of numbered days


© Janet Martin

Job 14:5
A person's days are determined; 
you have decreed the number of his months 
and have set limits he cannot exceed.






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I hope you enjoyed your pause on this porch and thank-you for your visit!