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Thursday, December 28, 2023

Don't Judge a Book By The Cover

 Everywhere we turn we see a library of humanity!


Behind the whole of human race
The smiling or the somber face
The eyes we meet in passing, oh
Behind each silence or hello
A story of a life unfolds

…behind facades our gaze beholds
Ink-drops of love, of loss and gain
Of want and need, pleasure and pain
Of holding on and letting go
Shimmers of a life story, so

…because we do not know in full
The details of love’s push and pull
The landscape of life’s ups and downs
That turns the face to smiles or frowns
Because we cannot see the part

…that cradles dreams, or breaks the heart
That fuels gladness or despair
The pressing paragraphs of care/prayer
Should we not be much kinder then
To a world full of fellowmen?

…and season each response with grace
For what we see upon the face
Does not reveal the no or yes
That authors ruin or success
Where we all share the common ground

…of hope, of Something lost or found
Of longings that have not been met
Held in the brooding bay of ‘yet
In stories of ink not yet dry
In so much more than meets the eye

Tall, short, rich, poor, plump or petite
Each bears a book that does not meet
The eye; where fingers cannot trace 
The lines that bridle human race
Into a kind of library

...penned by the likes of you and me
With no two stories quite the same
However great or small its fame
Where behind every face we meet 
Unfolds a story, bittersweet 

© Janet Martin

2 Cor.5:10
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, 
so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done 
while in the body, whether good or bad.

Rev.20:11-13
Then I saw a great white throne and the One seated on it.
Earth and heaven fled from His presence, and no place was found for them.
12And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne.
And there were open books,
and one of them was the Book of Life.
And the dead were judged according to their deeds, as recorded in the books.
13The sea gave up its dead,
and Death and Hades gave up their dead,
and each one was judged according to his deeds.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for continuing to share the outpouring of your heart & busily observant mind. A lovely and thoughtful combining of two favourite things - grace and libraries! (Well, three, if you include the apt Bible references :-). Here’s to incorporating more of all three in the new year! Cyndy/Montana1aDay.com

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  2. Dear Cyndy, thank-you SO much for your kind words! (Will this be the year my seeing-Montana-in-person dreams come true??? ) We shall see<3 ;-)

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