Momentous Memento

I helped to clean out Lucy's gardens yesterday...

(photos shared by permission)

While we collected flower seeds...

...picked her pears (how she loved these beauties!!)

 ...sailed through the air on swings

While they (her grandchildren) pulled my hands, eager to live, laugh and love

While they called "come and see' 

...while my heart almost collapsed within me

 I suddenly sensed in the tear-drenched dirt of hurt,

the innocent planting of seeds of Hope and Joy

Dear Lucy...

there are moments, grief numbs the part that ought to smart and sting

then, like a wave it comes; the heart wails like a wounded Thing

and there are times despair could haunt love's solemn sacrifice

and almost I am tempted to want love without its price

and, there are moments I feel stripped of all I once knew well

then without warning I am gripped with the sense of a Bell

still tolling, 'neath a Hand bestowing midst bereavement, bliss

of life still overflowing with Hand to Hold, Cheek to Kiss

then, although there are moments when grief deals a crushing blow

and longing reels as echoes peal from scenes I/we cherish/ed so

then, even when it feels like grief  grants love's mean reckoning 

I sense the turning of a leaf, tearstained, but beckoning 

there are moments I could not bear, but what love cannot lose

though every dream and wish and prayer has lost its dancing shoes

there are moments that steal my breath; joy and grief intertwined

in memories that feel like death left much of you behind

Janet 💔💞

there are moments that steal my breath; joy and grief intertwined

in memories that feel like death left much of you behind

Psalm 145: 13-14&17-20

The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises
    and faithful in all he does.[c]
14 The Lord upholds all who fall
    and lifts up all who are bowed down....

...The Lord is righteous in all his ways
    and faithful in all he does.
18 The Lord is near to all who call on him,
    to all who call on him in truth.
19 He fulfills the desires of those who fear him;
    he hears their cry and saves them.
20 The Lord watches over all who love him,...

Universal Invitation to Peace

Inspired in part by Luke 4&5

as well as week two of advent and the theme of Peace

Matt.5:9

Blessed are the peacemakers, 

For they shall be called sons of God.

I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day-Johnny Cash

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

2 Cor.9:15

Healer- Casting Crowns

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, 

and I will give you rest.

Matt. 11:28

Come with gladness and receive Him

Come with faith and be made whole

Lest by rejection we grieve Him

Healer of body and soul

Come, ye weary worn, care-laden

Come elder and children all

Come, young fellow and fair maiden

Heed The Great Physician’s call

Lest sin remains unforgiven

(Deathly debt none can defend)

Lest we, worldly-wisdom driven

Forfeit Heaven in the end

Lest hell’s hopeless haunting breaks us

As we wander to and fro

Lest the tempter’s taunting takes us

Where no thought or feet should go

Come, lest Lofty Dream deceives us

Come, though scorning skeptics laugh

Follow He who never leaves us

But pleads on the Soul’s behalf

We are crippled, blind and broken

Without God’s peace to console

Until we hear these words spoken

Friend, your faith has made you whole

Let the Prince of Peace deliver

Hearts, bitter and cynical

Like an arrow in His quiver

Let love work faith’s miracle

Forsake debate and believe Him

Lest doubt’s dark demons increase

Trust His promise and receive Him

Author of hope, joy and peace

© Janet Martin

When Jesus saw their faith, he said,

 “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

Luke 5:20

Mysterious Mosaic

Not all beauty is as easily recognizable as that of a flower...

or morning sky...

or precious, innocent child...

We all have our own version of Unspoken Broken, don't we?!

True Beauty in us is impossible until we entrust the pieces into

the loving Hands of the Healer of heart-hurts!

I can do all things through [a]Christ who strengthens me.

Phil.4:13

True Beauty is not always how we picture it should be

Where brokenness can blind us to beauty’s reality

For what is pleasing to the eye can trick the mind and heart

Into thinking that beauty is a perfect work of art

But beauty is a radiant reflection of ‘Release’

When, with our broken pieces, God begins His masterpiece

Beauty starts with the holy heart-work of humility

When at last yielded ‘yes’ replies ‘not I, but Christ in Me’

Then often, tis midst brokenness while shards still pierce and sting

That God can work His best for our good, in everything

For the capstone of beauty is begotten with great price

Not on a bed of roses, but a cross of sacrifice

While disappointment crushes and good intention seems cursed

We learn true beauty’s brushstrokes are not beautiful at first

But, just as God the Father saw beyond The Crucified

Beyond the painful hour to many souls justified

We learn to look beyond the broken to the Hand that heals

We learn that beauty is far more than how one looks or feels

True beauty is in what we know in spite of what we see

The grace whereby our weakness cries ‘not I, but Christ in Me’

As we admit our need; submit, commit our way to His

And undergo a slow and sacred metamorphosis

As glory of The Artist starts to shine through crack and crease

We begin to glimpse designs of Love's Divine Masterpiece

Mysterious mosaic, as God gathers doubts and fears

He melds/mends the broken spirit with confession's tender tears

And fashions from the fragments of our utter selves denied

A Beauty we were blind to while we wallowed in our pride

Mysterious mosaic, as our brokenness is healed

In the light of God's mercy, there, true beauty is revealed

 

© Janet Martin

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, 

but Christ lives in me. 

The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, 

who loved me and gave himself for me.

Gal.2:20

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters,

 in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, 

holy and pleasing to God--this is your true and proper worship.

Romans 12:1

Betrayal; The Chief of Grief

This week-end many will celebrate love on Valentine's Day.

I am so thankful for all the faithful love in my life

but this year I feel an unutterable sorrow for so much brokenness!💔

And while the word Betrayal renews reverence for the word Faithful 

it also leaves us grief-stricken with a sometimes-feels-helpless heartache, 

to witness the ruins of shattered lives!

Is there any hurt more bitter and brutal than betrayal; When trust is broken?! 

When spouses, friends, preachers, teachers, apologists, priests 

betray those who trusted their love, 

their counsel, their ‘wisdom’, their vows, their office. 

One of Jesus’ twelve disciples betrayed Him, (with a kiss!) 

Surely there is a sorrow more bitter than death! 

That of betrayal! 

When trust is shattered, love besot, 

When what we thought was so, is not 

When lie and liar are unveiled 

When it seems, alas, love has failed 

God, who, still trustworthy and true 

(With Whom we all will have to do) 

Abides, resides, provides; He knows 

The pain of thorns that pierced the Rose 

He wept, while his beloved slept 

Betrayed by a friend’s kiss, no less

He reaches down with hands nail-scarred

He understands; his brow thorn-marred

Who plumbed the depths of pain and grief 

In suffering, ah, He is Chief 

So then, whatever bitter lot 

We can trust Him, no matter what 

© Janet Martin 

Heb.4:13

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. 

Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes 

of him to whom we must give account.

So we pray and pray for the broken, the betrayed, 

and the betrayer, just as Jesus, Son of God though He was, did. 

Heb.5:7-9

During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions 

with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, 

and he was heard because of his reverent submission.

 8Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered

 9and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation 

for all who obey him...