Thursday Thoughts on Thanksgiving and Hope

Happy Thanksgiving to our American neighbours/friends💖

It is always touching and inspiring to watch the wonder and joy of children

as the gaze at the babe in the manger...

Pray, as they grow they will never lose the wonder

but come to know the boundless hope and joy

only faith in Jesus can give!

This kind of poem is always hard

to reel in to page-size portions.

someday we will have eternity to sing it; 

no time constraints!

(this can be read as six shorter poems or one longer poem)

When earthen vaults have overflowed

With plant-to-harvest sum

When orchards and vineyards have glowed

With garnet, gold and plum

When once again the land and limb

Is culled of ripened food

Then once again we raise a hymn

Of humble gratitude

For eyes to see and hands to hold

And fold in thankful prayer

For wonders that never grow old

For strength, love’s load to bear

For hope in God’s Supremacy

Who teaches us to trust

His lifeline thrown upon a sea

Of groaning dust-to-dust

***

Upon earth’s hearth scattered with ash

Of autumn’s fallen leaves

Where days are doffed of summer’s sash

Of dusk’s long-ling’ring eves

Where seasons, like a carousel

Spin round and round and round

Where time is like a tolling bell

Where we tread holy ground

Where all we have and hold is lent

And not meant to enslave

Where not one solitary cent

Can cheer us in the grave

Where God who fills earth’s treasure trove

Where bud and seed-gems brim

Upon this hearth we lift our love

In worship-songs to Him

***

From hands bearing redemption’s scars

Where once man’s pardon poured

From hands that established the stars

Hope’s anchor is restored

For on atonement’s cruel cross

Sin’s debt of guilt was paid

By He, who saw beyond his loss

To souls that would be saved

Then, to the God of earth and sky

With selfish heart undone

May endless praise be our reply

For what His grace has won

So when we cross that Awesome Deep

The angels will applaud

For Death will be Victory’s leap

Into the Arms of God

***

Give thanks for He whose love bestows

The blessings grace employs

Where would-be mis’ry overflows

With wonder’s countless joys

No woebegone, bleak hopelessness

In spite of woes that be

But pure and utter thankfulness

For Hope through Calvary

Where horror’s darkest hour wed

With The True Light unfurled

For, from redemption’s fountain bled

Joy’s beacon to the world

And what appeared as death at first

Where hatred seemed to win

Was but the heel that crushed the cursed

And evil wage of sin

***

For fruit of faith and field we sing

With glad and grateful laud

Where the altar and offering

Will prove who is our God

Where we will never be alone

If we believe in He

Who left the glory of his throne

To die upon a tree

Who, Lord of all, suffered life’s loss

Jesus, mighty to save

Obedient, endured the cross

To overthrow the grave

And instill to this toil and strife

Soul’s goal, purposed and true

The promise of eternal life

When life on earth is through

***

*Do not despair; love’s weight of care

Is but the tender price

And in a sense, a little share

Of God’s great sacrifice

Then, when the second mile seems long

And songs are groaned and wept

When we are weak, then we are strong

God’s grace is not inept

But tunes in us the humble cry

Not I, but Christ in me

The Rock upon which we rely

Is hope’s Sufficiency

Then we will let our worship spill

Though dark the glass between

For someday, face to face God will

Unveil what is unseen

© Janet Martin

*this last stanza was written with my cousin Wayne and his family in mind.

What trial they suffer as Wayne's MS continues to try and test,

and forces them into decisions/care arrangements 

love mourns to need to make

😢🙏💔

Luke 2:10-11

Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid,

 for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy 

which will be to all people. 

For there is born to you this day in the city of David 

a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 

It's beginning to look like Christmas...😀