Of Original, Age-old Hymns (or Bloom of Hymns)

Happy, Happy October!

Today's hymns have never been heard before

in this new day the Lord has made,

and yet, they are as old as Time!

Come, let us adore Him

Let's rejoice and be glad!

For soon the hymn that spills the hour

will fade like petals from the flower

Oh, what a pity if we miss

The bloom of hymns that Today Is!

We celebrated the last supper of September 2022

with quickly dwindling garden-fare

Fresh garden-slaw with stuffed red peppers!

Then, though this was all I could see of the spectacular sunset

it was enough.

 September's Last Love Song...

This is the (first October 2022) day the Lord has made

We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 118:24

The earth is like a fount that brims

With woodland, field and garden hymns

The Author of its melodies

Instills His praise in hills and trees/ (and skies and seas)

In notes that dazzle through the dell

Where, not by chance, Darling Brook fell

To draw us from the pressing gait

Of hurried traffic, always late

To theaters with grassy banks

Where we may pause in humbled thanks

To He who does not cease to write

Masterpieces of sheer delight

Woven through thorns that hold the rose

To soothe the wounds that thorn bestows

And heal the hunger of the heart

With songs that nature’s throngs impart

Until we too lift our voice

Reminded simply to rejoice

In this, ‘the day the Lord has made’

The glory of His love displayed

As mercy fills the fount that brims

With original, age-old hymns

© Janet Martin

I wanted to meander home from a few errands yesterday

until aghast, I glanced in the rear-view mirror to see a line of traffic piled up behind me...

The hill and curve thoroughfare, woven enchantingly through first-autumn vistas, 

made it impossible to pass😅😜

Oops! I was both apologetic and vexed!

I guess that's what back roads are for 

but then we end up with a dirty vehicle

and vexed Hubby!

Reminds me of last weekend when Father asked Daughter how

she could get such a dirty car when all the roads from point A to Be are paved!!

'Well,', confessed Daughter, 'I took a different way,

 Because the sideroad looked so pretty!'

Her father chided. Vexed!

Her mother beamed with pride

(For) what are a few mud-flecks compared

To dirt-road countryside! 💓😍😅

This Is the Day- CityAlight

With Joy Still Intact

Singing the praises of September-Fall's Glory this morning!

Happy First Autumn Saturday of 2022!

Psalm 24:1

The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; 

the world, and they that dwell therein.

From molds of bronze and blue and gold September’s daybreak spills

An aura from Another World steeps treetops, fields and hills

In deep green woodland diadems, stained-glass-like fragments gleam

In ditches scarlet hawkweed gems and purple aster stream 

From welkin wellsprings, wonder, like a drum roll, stirs the heart

As earth and heavens thunder with first autumn’s works of art

Delight dines on Sublime Arrangements, Beauty’s buffet stacked

In spite of summertime’s estrangements, with joy still intact

The sun is like a trumpet heralding Mercy’s embrace

The world wrapped in a blanket unfurled from the throne of grace

Where, no matter the season, we are part and parcel of

The very humbling reason of God’s everlasting love

How tender is the awe of mourning/morning where Past’s ashes strew

While splendor never stops adorning earth with Heaven’s woo

September’s paint brush hovers while fall’s thrilling Prelude plays

Where joy never recovers from Creation’s constant praise

© Janet Martin

Sitting in the Garden (is a lovely thing to do)

'You have a lot of garden benches', commented one of my sisters recently.

'Do you use them?'

I guess she knows how it goes!

Sitting in the garden is a lovely thing to do

but easier said than done

because gardening and nice gardens don't just happen!

They are a constant labor of love

/aka weeding, hoeing, pruning, dusting and picking!

But here and there every gardener needs to take the time to sit a bit

And fellowship with the First Garden-Creator,

 in the cool of the day....

Sitting in a garden is a lovely thing to do

To marvel at God’s art and let His laughter run us through

To commune with the busy/buzzy bee, the bird, the butterfly

To join the applause of the tree where gauzy breezes sigh

Sitting in a garden in the middle of the day

Grants worry sudden pardon and eases hurry away

For, basking in the beauty where a flower bower brims

Is like sitting where God's music sheets run rife with petal-hymns

The handiwork of He who instills buds and seeds with bloom

Constantly thrills; only God fills and threads nature’s grand loom

He steals our breath; Self dies ten-thousand deaths as She beholds

Perfection’s hues; pinks, chartreuse, blues, whites, reds, purples and golds

Sitting in the garden is earth’s glimpse of paradise

Happiness in purest mirth and labour’s sweetest prize

Work and worship’s Heaven; what a lovely place to be

Sitting in a garden is like sitting at/on God’s knee

© Janet Martin

some more garden pleasure...

Beauty-Bombardment

We need only to look within us and around us

to soon be bombarded with life's Unbeautiful!

But pray we are never so burdened by the unbeautiful 

that we miss the beauty (of the Lord)

Psalm 27:4

One thing have I desired of the LORD, 

that will I seek after; 

that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life,

 to behold the beauty of the LORD, 

and to inquire in his temple.

Forbid that in this world that brims with beauty of the Lord

With morning-tide, unfurled in hymns of mercy’s vow restored...

With lilies, though they do not toil or spin, God weaves their cloak

In grander garb than queen or king’s royal garments bespoke...

Where Innocence is following us with unbridled trust...

Where labor is a love-song to He who its page bestows

Where joy is like a fountain as thanksgiving overflows...

Forbid that in this world that brims with beauty of the Lord

With morning-tide, unfurled in hymns of mercy’s vow restored

With lilies, though they do not toil or spin, God weaves their cloak

In grander garb than queen or king’s royal garments bespoke

Forbid that where the beauty of a helping hand is sought

Where far more than stiff duty stirs us from sweet slumber’s cot

(Because love gladdens ups and downs of toil and happiness

And hope is like The Rose that crowns the thorns that prick and press)

Forbid that in this place where each new day of grace is poured

Through the flue of God’s smiling face (though He is oft ignored)

Where Hallowed Glimpse is hollowing each frame of dust to dust

Where Innocence is following us with unbridled trust

Where beauty of a baby is life's sweetest, purest loan

Where in the midst of Maybe God's Word anchors the unknown

Where nature is a theater of Eden's tarnished void  

Where someday the Creator will restore what sin destroyed 

Where what we cannot fathom should fashion each day we live

Where One authors a question to An Answer all will give

Where Example is coaching the most tender among us

Where we are all approaching A Most Sacred Exodus

Where all we have is Given by the One who grants its means

Where night’s dark veil is riven where dawn’s grail spills color-scenes

Where God’s Word is not shaken though Unbelief waxes bold

Where One Day all will waken to undoubtedly ‘Behold’

Where labor is a love-song to He who its page bestows

Where joy is like a fountain as thanksgiving overflows

Where time is but a quiver on strings of eternity

Forbid I (we) scorn its Giver and a Blind Bystander be

Forbid that I (we) do nothing where goodness and mercy brim

But trample the fine clothing of the love and grace of Him

Forbid I (we) miss the thunder of Beauty that wills today

And never thrill with wonder at Love’s sumptuous buffet

…and never be bombarded by the Beauty of the Lord

Dismayed and broken-hearted without comfort, Word-restored

Forbid we spurn the kindness of God’s faithful keep and care

Because we turn to blindness of Unbelief’s Deep/dark Despair

© Janet Martin

Rev. 1:4-8

Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, 

and who is to come, and from the seven spirits a before his throne,

  5and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, 

the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,

  6and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—

to him be glory and power for ever and ever!

 Amen.

7“Look, he is coming with the clouds,” b

and “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him”;

and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.” c

So shall it be! 

Amen.

8“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God,

 “who is, 

and who was, 

and who is to come, 

the Almighty.”

Beauty Pageant

 Wishing you a wow-run-wild kind of day!

This time of years is a salad-lover's paradise!!

snaring buds as I snip off faded peonies...

Beauty burgeons, brims and billows

Glints and glimmers, sweeps and sighs

Beauty spills hills; plumped green pillows

Perched against cerulean skies

Beauty is sweet bliss unshaken

Beauty startles, stirs and awes

Beauty is the kiss that wakens

Worship’s wild, off-guard applause

Beauty bursts bud-vaults with flowers

Wonder loosens longing’s noose

Beauty decks and drips from arbors

Periwinkle and chartreuse

Beauty sprawls in shadow-steeples

Mapping out the march of time

Beauty falls in faded petals

From the frond that held its prime

Beauty ignores human nature

Often blind to God at large

Beauty does not force the creature

To enjoy the show, no charge

Beauty flutters, flits and flickers

Filling hearts with my-oh-my

Beauty warbles, wafts and whispers

Bitty bird and butterfly

Beauty bids bards brave the battle

That the font does not disclose

Beauty helps hope cope with trouble

The thorn tempered by the rose

Beauty murmurs and meanders

Like a brook snared by a pen

As the poet tames to paper

Beauty to relive again

© Janet Martin

I was reminded of this verse below because counting all that God does and creates 

cannot be contained in all the books and poems ever written!

John 21:25

Jesus did many other things as well. 

If every one of them were written down,

 I suppose that even the whole world would not have room 

for the books that would be written.

As Long As Life Has Flowers We Will Never Un-kissed Be

 In Ontario it is iris, peony and lupine season...

...among others

Gerbera Daisies

Columbine

Spiderwort

Clematis

Every flower-lover is in constant awe at the myriad intricacies of each flower

designed by our Creator

The above beauties,

 plus Brenda's post,

plus this morning's devotion

...inspired today's poem

(it can be interpreted as written either about flowers or people.

God's love/beauty poured through us)

As long as life has flowers, we will never friendless be

God decorates earth’s bowers with such pleasant company

He stirs our hearts to leap with praise where oft a bloom beguiles

Us to marvel at countless ways that the Creator smiles

The loom within the bud unravels wonder, crease by crease

A miracle of fragile petals forms each masterpiece

Like symbols of kind pardon, beauty startles trouble’s plain

Glimpses of Eden’s Garden gild hill, hollow, field and lane

All things are possible with He who designs every fold

And strews to earth a starry sea of wonders to behold

Forbid one looks but misses mercy’s autographs of grace

God smiles and blows His kisses to us in each flower-face

© Janet Martin

Luke 12:27
Consider how the lilies grow: 

They do not labor or spin. 

Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory 

was adorned like one of these.