The High Stakes of Steppingstones

Sunday's teaching message at our church

was based on Matt. 6, 

a chapter that leaves no stone unturned when it comes to

how we ought to live/give...

19“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, 

where moths and vermin destroy, 

and where thieves break in and steal.

 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, 

where moths and vermin do not destroy, 

and where thieves do not break in and steal.

 21 For where your treasure is,

 there your heart will be also.

Today; a steppingstone cradled in the hand of God

No matter how we look at it...

...we are in good hands

Dawn breaks; earth’s shadowed tide recedes as flood of daylight fills the sky

And sets beneath a world of feet far more than meets the naked eye

Where each day, like a steppingstone is cradled in the Giver’s Hands

On it, Creature of grin and groan shoulders love’s duties and demands

Often paying minimal heed to He who keeps us in His care

While we, a soul-instilled stampede, resume Transport from Here to There

And because God wills hearts to soften, rather than grow proud and cold

His tutorship of mercy often clashes with our stubborn/selfish hold

Upon the east a Feast of Goodness, promise-anchored, rends the air

But poverty can’t eat a promise; God bids all who 'have', to share

To bear in mind the measure of love’s evidence naught can Disguise

Residence of the treasure-trove will tell where our allegiance lies

Without a word to justify, without excuses to explain

For we are all servants either for this world or for heaven’s gain

There is no in between; nothing to counter living proof of choice

Twixt beckoning and reckoning a world of hands and feet give voice

…to Who we dearly love the most and who is the heart’s true delight

Who rushes our tongues with boast and cheers us onward in the fight/flight

Who fills our hope with happiness and whose name we thrill to repeat

What definition of success commands our hands and march of feet

Who makes it worth the give and take that may seem of small consequence

Before we behold the high stakes as steppingstones yield recompense

Dawn breaks; the stakes of steppingstones may seem a payoff far and dim

But one glimpse of God on His throne and we would all be heirs of Him

© Janet Martin