The Good and Perfect 'Changeless'

James 1:17

Every good and perfect gift is from above,

coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights,

who does not change like shifting shadows.

The cup that holds life’s sparkle of delight

Praise God, still spills to gladden taste and touch...

The innocence of tot, eager to learn

The priceless charge of we who teach and train...

(Helping gramma make *Lemon-raspberry-blueberry muffins)

Recipe at the bottom of this post

Grandson is learning,an egg beater is not as easy as gramma made it look 😊💖

Forever, licking the bowl is the best part of helping

well, almost!

The sweeping lyrics of soft summer rain...

(I hope the corn rows recover  from some 

VERY sweeping, not always soft, 

remnant of hurricane Beryl 'lyrics', yesterday!)

Mingled warble of songbirds, free of care...

The happy, smile-reward of ‘dishes done’

The unspeakable awe of lilies fair

And fine vesture of fields, wildflower-spun

The best things in life do not change, in spite

Of rise and fall of centuries and such

The cup that holds life’s sparkle of delight

Praise God, still spills to gladden taste and touch

The innocence of tot, eager to learn

The priceless charge of we who teach and train

God’s tutelage, that we could never earn

The sweeping lyrics of soft summer rain

Mingled warble of songbirds, free of care

The happy, smile-reward of ‘dishes done’

The unspeakable awe of lilies fair

And fine vesture of fields, wildflower-spun

Each new day, rife with opportunity

A little like an ephemeral raft

Where the pleasure of pleasant company

Grants echo-measure to treasure long aft

The value of kindness, however small

To cheer someone. The joy of home, sweet home

A haven in a world of beck and call

To which, eager and thankfully we come

Sound slumber’s elixir, coffee, hot, black

The grace whereby we weather the ways of

Today; something we can never have back

Then, make the precious best of live-to-love

Because the best things time cannot estrange

No shifting shadow, God, whose mercies brim

In steadfast faithfulness, through constant change

Still, every good, perfect gift comes from Him

The pure contentment of a thankful heart

The happiness of words like ‘us’ and ‘we’

Each season, showcasing majestic art

By the author of perfect poetry

The thrill of a good book, good food, good friend 

Good morning dear, wherever you may be

We have a God whose goodness knows no end

 Trustworthy throughout all eternity 

© Janet Martin

This is how the book George Muller of Bristol ends;

the changelessness of truth makes its treasured text timeless 

and here is the above mentioned recipe

Janet's Raspberry-Blueberry Lemon Muffins

(originally they were going to be only Raspberry-lemon.

 but while Gramma had her back turned

half of the raspberries mysteriously disappeared!) 😂😉

21/2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup white sugar (or less)

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 cup butter (or 3/4 cup butter and 2 tbsp. olive oil)

zest of one lemon

3/4 cup milk

squeeze in juice of 1/2 lemon

2 eggs

 1 tsp. vanilla 

1 cup each, frozen or fresh

raspberries and blueberries

slivered almond garnish, optional

Combine flour, sugar and baking powder in large bowl.

cut in butter peices till crumbly.

reserve 3/4 cup of crumbs for topping.

set aside.

Combine milk, eggs and vanilla

Add to dry ingredients, and lemon zest, 

and stir only till moistened.

gently fold in fruit.

Spoon into muffin cups.

Sprinkle with reserved crumbs (and slivered almonds)

Bake approx. 30 min. or till firm whe touched at 350 F

Yield: 12 large or 18 medium muffins

Sometimes You Say I've Changed...

Jim and I are approaching our birthdays-season,

kindling tender reflection.

Jim is entering a new decade on Saturday💓🙏

Once upon a time our parents were parents of little children,

then, they became parents of adult children,

Then they became parents of adult children with little children

Now they are parents of adult children with adult children 

who are raising the next generation of little children...

and so it goes.

Nothing and no one stays the same for long!

Best to embrace the place/grace we are in,

for where one season is,

another is waiting to be

as long as life remains!

I am completely content in the season I am in,

not because everything is perfect but because

there are enough joys to balance the heartaches.

Thank-you, Lord!

Spending time with our children

and grandchildren is one of 

life's blessed joys, in the season Jim and I are in.

I love how helping to plant potatoes made Grand-kiddos

 feel happy, important and valued...

(the 'taking turns' rule kept it lively, 

with always someone trying to sneak in two 'turns' in a row 😂)

We had eight rows planted in next to no time at all!

Good times 💖

And great opportunity to live out this passage:

 Deut. 6:5-9

And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart

 and with all your soul and with all your strength.

6These words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts.

  7And you shall teach them diligently to your children (or grandchildren)

and speak of them when you sit at home 

and when you walk along the road, (or work in the garden)

when you lie down and when you get up. 

8Tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

  9Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.

***

I love how the soft soil beneath their bare feet made them giddy with delight

I love how they still all love gramma's lap 💝 

I love when they can have some one on one grandpa time

 (while gramma cleans up supper dishes)

I love having  special reasons to bake...

 

Sometimes you say I’ve changed, and in a sense, I guess it’s true

Time changes things and I suppose it changes people too

Because perspective, with experience is apt to shift

The older that we grow the more we see life as a gift

The older that we grow the more we care about today

Because we’ve come to know how swift each day-gift slips away

To the permanent residence where centuries amass

Where everything that comes along is just as bound to pass

Where circumstance has always dealt both life’s better and worst

Where stepping stones to wisdom often felt like failure first

Where what we learned has earned a gentler, beholden regard

Because the way to learning it, was often slow and hard

Honing what we admire and desire and respect

And opening our eyes to joys we no longer neglect

As we begin to see without a shadow of a doubt

The certainties that younger people seldom think about

Where threescore year and ten or four was for far older crones

Before we looked time in the mirror and felt it in our bones

Admitting with aha, that time’s dexterous sleight of hand

Is more adept than any trick vain mortal can command

Sometimes you say I’ve changed; far sadder to remain untaught

After a lifetime leased to learn to love the way we ought

After day after day of grace, by mercy’s Hand arranged

Forbid the best that we can boast is that we never changed

© Janet Martin

Ps.90:12

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Because Life's Best Things Never Change...

The innocence of tot...

The sacred charge of we

Who train their tender chain of thought

By what they hear and see...

(below, the beginning of what I hope is a long, friendly acquaintance

with gramma's fridge...😂💗)

The pleasures nature grants

Where every season-lease

Spills spectacles of birds and plants

Each its own masterpiece...

Life’s best things never change

The beauty of the earth

And sky, where the heavens proclaim

Day’s demise and rebirth

The innocence of tot

The sacred charge of we

Who train their tender chain of thought

By what they hear and see

The pleasures nature grants

Where every season-lease

Spills spectacles of birds and plants

Each its own masterpiece

A soulful melody

That strikes a chord so dear

Its fond familiarity

Evokes both smile and tear

The comfort and delight

Of squash-soup in a bowl

To satisfy the appetite

Of both body and soul

The good of lessons learned

The woods frost-kissed, or awed

Spectators with faces upturned

To feel the kiss of God

The bliss of coming home

The love of family

To share and bear the grin and groan

Of mirth and misery

Laughter, free from pizzazz 

Of vowels and consonants

But lilts and peals and sparkles as

It teaches hearts to dance

The thrill in simple things

Good books, a favorite mug

New mercy as each morning brings

God's warm handshake or hug

The gift of growing old

To taste the sweeter truth

Of joys time designs to withhold

From fairer green of youth

Moment-bubbles that break

In breathtaking surprise

A candle-spangled birthday cake

Or lake full of sunrise

The possibilities

Where ingredients start

To tickle taste-bud fantasies

With culinary art  

God’s word, infallible

Unswayed by vain dispute

No mortal verdict can annul

His Sovereign Absolute

Though seasons/eons may estrange

So much that cannot stay

Because life’s best things never change

We will not lose our way

…supper table to set

Dusk’s shadow-hallowed death

Hellos to kindle wicks not yet

Snuffed by farewell’s last breath

© Janet Martin

The possibilities

Where ingredients start

To tickle taste-bud fantasies

With culinary art 

 The comfort and delight

Of squash-soup in a bowl

To satisfy the appetite

Of both body and soul

Through The Ups and Downs of 'Becoming'

Nothing in life stays the same for long, does it?!

Seasons change. People change.

Change is constant but something I read this morning reminded readers

that rather than just seeing ourselves, or situations as changing, 

to view it as 'becoming'.

This attitude helps us be more merciful and prudent 

with both ourselves and others!

So off we go to meet the ups and downs of

a new day and a new week, of Becoming

all by the changeless grace of our changeless, loving God.

p.s. it's worth every precious while we take

to think about how much God loves us!

Doesn't the canvas of a new day sometimes almost take your breath away,

considering humankind's track-record?!!

Oh, the ups and downs of living

Oh, the cups that fill and drain

As torrents of take-and-giving

Rush hearts with pleasure and pain

Oh, the highs and lows of loving

Oh, the ties that strain and bend

In the thick and quick of proving

Love’s faithfulness to the end

Oh, the Yet of have-and-holding

Oh, the letting go it bears

Teaching us the art of folding

Life-long learning into prayers

Oh, the tug of wars we weather

Oh, the hug that bids release

Oh, the testing of love’s tether

As God works its masterpiece

Oh, the rise and fall of laughter

Oh, the prize and gall of tears

Caught between before and after 

While a lifetime disappears 

Oh, love's fumbles, oh, life's stumbles

Oh, the bumbles we repeat (or, oh, the humble pies we eat)

While God's grace and goodness tumbles

New 'becoming' 'neath our feet 

Oh, the beauty of His favor

Oh, the duty of reply

Oh, the love of Christ, our Saviour's

'Upsy-daisy, here am I 

Through the ups and downs of living

In the cups that fill and drain

With torrents of take-and-giving

Here am I to help again'

© Janet Martin

May we take heart through

Solomon's Benediction, as relevant now as then!

1 Kings 8:54-61

Solomon’s Benediction

54Now when Solomon had finished praying this entire prayer and petition to the LORD,

he got up before the altar of the LORD,

where he had been kneeling with his hands spread out toward heaven.

55And he stood and blessed the whole assembly of Israel in a loud voice, saying:

56“Blessed be the LORD, who has given rest to His people Israel

according to all that He promised.

Not one word has failed of all the good promises

He made through His servant Moses.

57May the LORD our God be with us, as He was with our fathers.

May He never leave us nor forsake us.

58May He incline our hearts to Himself, to walk in all His ways

and to keep the commandments and statutes

and ordinances He commanded our fathers.

59And may these words with which I have made my petition before the LORD

be near to the LORD our God day and night,

that He may uphold the cause of His servant

 and of His people Israel as each day requires, 

60so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God.

There is no other!

61So let your heart be fully devoted to the LORD our God,

as it is this day, to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments.”

Thank God (for things that don't grow old, or change!)

 This poem was inspired in part as I inhaled a fresh, new August morning,

and in part as I marveled at the beauty of God's eternal Word!

Thank God for things that don’t grow old, or change, as ages woo

Like August mornings drenched in gold, mantled in mist and dew

Like waves that wash the shore but cannot pass its boundary

Like innocence of babe and tot, as precious as can be

Like laughter’s medicine to lighten loads that oft press soar

Like the lure of a country back road ready to explore

Like flowers, as they bloom and fade like petal-orchestras

Like worship as we praise, He who made and keeps nature’s laws

Like mesmerizing artistry of sun and shadow play

Like unplumbed opportunity in each and every day 

Like never-too-old-to-accede-so-much-still-left-to-learn 

Like 'we are known by word and deed'; respect, something we earn,

Like trees that make us feel so small beneath lofty leaf-tents

Like the lilt of a waterfall after winter relents

Like the eternal Word of God; a Light that will not dim

Like the heart repeatedly awed by the wonders of Him

Like the peace we find as we trust in His sufficient grace

Like happiness when kindness puts a smile upon a face

Like warm welcomes of home-sweet-home’s familiarity

…the adrenaline rush of Poem possibility

Gardens to gladden common cooks, and yards where children play

Like comfort of good food and books to keep the blues at bay

Like Today, always new, rife with moments not tasted yet

A buffet heaped with much to do before life’s sun is set

Like love of family and friends to help us weather cares

Knowing, no matter what life sends, it fits into meek prayers

Like thanking God while time runs bold in what it will estrange

For many things that don’t grow old, and ages cannot change

© Janet Martin

Like flowers, as they bloom and fade like petal-orchestras...

Of Best Laid Plan

One thing we learn over and over is

no matter how important planning is,

and no matter how meticulously each detail is addressed,

or each prospect visualized,

plans, at best, are extremely volatile!

The 'best laid plan' therefore, with humble 'Thy will be done'

should always be entrusted to the Higher Hand

who orchestrates Purpose far beyond the frames we peer through

to hopes and dreams not accomplished yet!

With all the unexpected snow days this winter it seems like possibly

 I am being conditioned for the childcare break coming up.

...or, at least that is the plan😅🙏

Sometimes it feels like life is simply a constant sequence

 of changed plans/ misplaced puzzle pieces!

I'm trying to decide if today is the day 

I commit to starting a puzzle and if so, which one?!

Plans are like phantom pieces to a puzzle thought perceives

Of panoramic vistas wafting on volatile breeze

Where soon, even a child begins to learn the simple fact

How plans at best, are pictures that we cannot keep intact

No matter how meticulously we try to arrange

The pieces to fit perfectly; still, often plans will change

Teaching us to be patient as we reconcile the art

Of relinquishing pictures that change-of-plans pulls apart

How often heart shaped tatters scatter where no one can see

Save we who bear the brunt of Planning’s altered scenery

How often, as we grapple with the pictures we release

We are reminded of the Hand beneath each puzzle piece

© Janet Martin

James 4:13-15

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”