A Wedding Blessing For Couples Getting Married During Covid-19

 Sometimes my oldest sister calls to ask if I have written or would/could consider writing a poem about a certain topic. This was such a time. She was looking for a poem to put in wedding cards where they are invited guests but are unable to attend due to social distancing. I am sharing it in hopes that it may bless and comfort the couples who do  not have the joy of a traditional wedding...

Love suffers long and it is kind; bears and believes all things

It endures and secures us in the troubles that life brings

Love never fails, the Great Sustain-er in times hard and strange

When cruel disappointment allows things we cannot change

Dear Lord, we know that You behold this lovely bride and groom

And how they miss what’s missing in the Ceremony Room

Then Lord, instill the absence of dear friends and family

With Your fulfilling Presence and love’s divine sympathy

Be near to we who are with them in thought if not in form

Grant us Thy perfect peace, (not as the world gives) in this storm

Satisfy pain with promises that nothing can replace

Surprise the bitter blow with joy possible by Your grace

Thou, Favoured Wedding Guest, fill emptiness with comfort sweet

Lord, bless this day with happiness and make their joy complete

Where, as from this day forward, they, no longer two but one

Have learned, from the beginning who Greater, to lean upon

And as they vow to love each other faithfully always

Lord, fill us with thanksgiving that will fill Your courts with praise

And Lord we pray that You will shelter them close to Your heart

With Your goodness and mercy to follow till death doth part

© Janet Martin

Surely Goodness and Mercy will follow me all the days of my life

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever

Psalm 23:6

While We All Are Feeling Our Way...

He has told you, O man, what is good; 

and what does the LORD require of you 

but to do justice, and to love kindness, 

and to walk humbly with your God?
 Micah 6:8

I had hoped through all ‘This’ most of us would turn more loving 

but it seems its still the same; loving only on our terms 

and hating with a passion those who do not agree! 

And we cannot blame this on COVID-19, only on our hearts!

Seems some things never change; 

below an excerpt from a conversation between Robbie Burn's father and a neighbour

in Scotland in the 1700s

from the book The Wind That Shakes The Barley

Not one of us had been through anything like this before

Some call it COVID -19 while others have called it war

So while we all are feeling our way through the unknowns

Let’s make our greatest effort yet to love and not throw stones

This life we live is precious and a sacred, single leap

Not much we can take with us to that Great Immortal Sleep

So while we have each other, should we not strive to be kind

For though we take nothing with us, we leave so much behind

...and all the stones we hurl accomplish only hate, not love

No matter how uncertain times may be, we ought to prove

Not with loud lashing out about things we see but in part

But with sacred awareness for He who beholds the heart

The greatest of these, love, does not release us from its charge

When we are disappointed in life's circumstance At Large

But even greater then, the need that we stand strong and true

Revering life’s Creator with what we are called to do

Abhor that which is evil and cling to that which is good

And though we are appalled at evil's multiplying brood

Pray we do not confuse opinion with our Utmost Call

To love Him and each other; this, the Greatest Law of all

Advancement does not absolve our 'whole duty of man'
These modern days we live in too will end where Time began
And pray, what will we do when, face to face with God above

He opens up our book of life and finds we failed to love

© Janet Martin

 When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: 

Fear God and keep His commandments, 

because this is the whole duty of man.

For God will bring every deed into judgment, 

along with every hidden thing, 

whether good or evil.

Eccles.12:13-14

 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart 
and with all your soul
 and with all your mind.’^[a]  
This is the first and greatest commandment.  
And the second is like it:
 ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[b]  
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matt.22:36-40 

 We are all COVID-19-restriction weary, but come on,
let's not make it worse by hurling stones as we disagree on how things should be handled!
 Let's please use this as a time to love more, not hate more!
Things are hard enough without lack of love!

Limbo-land

Oh, just to be stuck in  rush-hour traffic behind a school-bus!

 Oh, to be free of COVID-19!

Oh Lord, that we would not be too stubborn to learn to lean on You!

I've remarked a few times how I didn't realize till this lock-down how much of life is Plans...

often we forget to say if the Lord wills we will...

James 4:13-15

 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town 

and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—  

 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. 

What is your life? 

For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.  

 Instead you ought to say,

 “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

Living in limbo these strange days it seems

Plan stands akimbo as we gaze at dreams

All we once witnessed without second thought

Sparkles with richness we nearly forgot

Stirring fond longing for mem’ry-made Things

Work-a-day love-song while tool-of-trade rings

Caught in the traffic behind a school bus

Turn up the music while we fret and fuss

To market, to market, without fearful word

To bicker and barter and shout to be heard

To mosey, enchanted, indulge in the bliss

That we took for granted…big hug, handshake, kiss

To wish to be jostled by crowds bargain-mad

To be pushed and scowled at won’t seem so bad

To chat (bumping carts) about everyday tasks

Not six feet apart behind mittens and masks

To ruffle the curls of baby girls, freckled chaps

And cuddle the world as they climb on our laps

To not furrow brows at the Sunday noon clock

While Preacher runs overtime rousing the flock
Or dock the poor server of nickel and dime
Because lunch took longer than it did last time

Not spiteful and quick to pinpoint people’s flaws

But gentled by sickness-induced worldwide pause

Beneath deathly pall of ‘ah, this too shall pass’

Urging the hours to fall through time’s glass

Till all this is over, then pray we will be

A sister and brother worldwide family

More giving, more thankful, more fully aware

Of living more mindful of love’s creature-care

More patient and humble, need each other more

Less reason to grumble than we had before

When all this is over and we realize

The gift of each other is life’s truest prize

© Janet Martin

May we be part of a worldwide choir, even now
Praising God for His daily mercies!
Some sweet day we will gather to sing in choirs

God’s Ears, My Throat, and the Best and Worst Case Scenario

Like never before prayer is/must be the power we choose and turn to!

 Most crises bring people together.
COVID-19 will persist unless we stay apart to fight it, 

making the longing for human interaction a hunger
we have never experienced to this degree!!

So many things I think of to do for people to cheer them
I realize include some sort of physical touch!
Since we don’t really know how potent the virus is
even food-prep for others is iffy! 

(my personal comfort-language)

But God’s Ear, the most powerful bulwark of all is always accessible.

My friend, who is on mat-leave with a DARLING new baby
that no one can come and see or cuddle
sent me this when I told her I’m stressing over every throat-scratch!
Laughter really is a wonderful medicine!

 I read the excerpt below on one of my favorite blogs

 on today's post; God Himself Scraped and Torn

In a daring and beautiful creative reversal, 
God takes the worse we can do to Him
and turns it into the very best He can do for us.
~Malcolm Guite from The Word in the Wilderness

The best that we can ever have

Came through the Worst love bore for us

When God gave Heaven’s Best to brave

The Worst (Man’s sin) on cruel cross

The Worst that we must brave is small

Compared to what the Best will be

For God so loved us, one and all

He paid sin’s debt on Calvary

…so that the worst may taste the Best

Because the Best suffered the worst

Our prayer and supplication blessed

Because we are no longer cursed

Therefore to turn away from He

Who gave His best to save mankind

Deserves the worst that there can be

When little life is left behind

© Janet Martin

Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. 

The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are inclined to their cry. 

But the face of the LORD is against those who do evil,

 to sever their memory from the earth.…

Psalm 34:14-16

John 9:31

We know that God does not listen to sinners, 

but He does listen to the one who worships Him and does His will.

1 Peter 3:12

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are inclined to their prayer.

 But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."

Looking Forward to a New Normal after COVID-19

 (*the old normal was referring to seeing my family, my grand-children,
my friends and church-family...)
 But that will never feel like the old normal either!
So much sweeter and holier than EVER before!)

Yesterday I texted my sister 'I miss the *old normal!!'

 After listening to this: Night of Prayer

I recant!

"Oh, God Help us never return to pick up where we left off!"

(if you stop listening before the end of the video how MUCH you will miss💕)

May we not dream of picking up where we left off before

A universal wake-up call came, pounding at our door

May we never be bitter at the fear and loss that spawned

A humble reassessment of life and its great Beyond

The harder that the shell has grown the more painful the break

Lord, You can melt a heart of stone, then, cause our hearts to ache

Until we yield without design or some safe-guarded sin

And with repentance genuine, Confess, and thus begin

May we never return to live half-loves of skin and bone

Afraid of who or what might infringe on its ‘comfort-zone’

But may we, heart and soul, be transformed through our minds renewed

Humbled into love, pure and true, with holy gratitude

And as we pick up pieces after this disease is spent

May we revere the Hand from whence each day’s mercies are lent

And may we never strive to return to what was before

But learn, through prayer, as we let go, God gives us so much more

© Janet Martin

If my people, who are called by my name, 

will humble themselves and pray 

and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, 

then I will hear from heaven, 

and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

2 Chron.7:14