Life Goes On

A few weeks ago we attended the wedding of my neice.

 She married our lifelong neighbour's son!

At the wedding hubby and I chatted for a little while with the groom's uncle
 (age 63) who moved to Manitoba years ago and raised his family there.

He encouraged me to make/take the time to go with Jim/hubby sometimes
because we just never know what life can bring.
Since that conversation 3+ weeks ago Jim has met him completely unexpectedly (twice!)
as he drove through Manitoba.
Suddenly a truck pulled alongside his truck and a man with a friendly smile
and honk waved as he went by. It was Ken Weber!

Yesterday he passed away suddenly due to a heart attack!

A few days ago a this community was rocked by the death of a young woman
 killed in an awful traffic accident, leaving us asking,
(after coming through a sorrow-stricken October)

 who/what next?!!

 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death,

 so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.
For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again,

we also believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.…

1 Thess. 4:13-14 

This song was played the other Sunday for our 'hurting bad' church family

as we mourn the sudden loss of a few of its members...

because, life goes on!

Life goes on

The holes where loss

Leaves gaping wounds

Ah, who can fill?

Where Death

(That Ruthless Random Beast)

With precise aim

Is never still

Life goes on:

Worlds rocked anew

With Grief’s insistent

Unforeseen

Where all we knew

Cannot return

To be the way

That it had been

Death’s sickle swings

Ah, who is next

To fall beneath its

Binding blade

Where love, ah love

Will suffer long

The aftermath

Of parting’s trade

Where life goes on

In spite of Death

(Though much is taken

Much remains)

To stir our hearts

And steal our Breath

As Hope in God

Alone sustains

Life goes on;

It eddies, swirls

Where love and sorrow

Ache and brim

As love of God

Kindly consoles

And fills the holes

With hope in Him

© Janet Martin

Of Live-and-Learning's Page/Wage...

 I snapped this quickie-photo as I was heading out this morning...

...when I returned home the day was done!

Today was the funeral of the man from our church family
who passed away unexpectedly and I mentioned here on Monday.

 We all live in a world where none of us knows what a day, much less an hour holds!

This should surely cause us to touch down on dawn's blank page

many expressions of kindness and sympathy!

I began this poem this morning but was unable to finish it before I needed to leave...

Day dawns and splays beneath our touch the likeness of an empty page

And who knows what will spill from mortal quill where mercy sets the stage

But He who authorizes and bestows the breath and breadth of It

Grants confidence and courage as we pause and talk to Him a bit

How heartily an hour can devour seasons blink by blink

And where the page was bare it wears invisible, permanent ink

But while we earn the stars and scars of live-and-learning’s hard-fought wage

God never grants a second chance on anything but a fresh page

Now what we, once upon our youth thought we could outrun or outsmart

Pays homage to the age-old truth that mellows our mind and heart

And fills us with meek gratitude, and attitudes of sympathy

For we, kinda like family, all face what only God can see

Day dawns and splays beneath our touch what live-laugh-love will soon estrange

The platform for our such-and-such is subject to plan’s sudden change

Where we could all be terrified by What If’s wild-flung avenue

Without God’s promise verified; ‘My peace I leave and give to You’

© Janet Martin

 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.

I do not give to you as the world gives. 

Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

John 14:27

Because Of How Little We Know...

Books filled with knowledge tell us only so much

Life’s day-to-day college hinged to time’s cooled touch

Where retrospect’s cast can put on quite a show

And re-impact us with how little we know

…where we, well-acquainted with years full of ‘learn’

Depend on hindsight for the wisdom we earn

Trip-slip, fumble-stumble yields experience

Teaching us to live-love with more reverence/patience

…and not take for granted that we will behold

The seeds that we planted turn from green to gold

And always remember, by God’s grace we go

Then trust Him because of how little we know

© Janet Martin

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

  in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

Prov.3:5-6

A re-run because its message is needful every day!

Who Knows...But This

What waits to be in poetry?

Will it be triumph of success?

Or disappointment's infantry

Marching through tampered happiness

What waits to be for you and me?

Ah, will it author joy or dread

As twilight lowers to the sea

A canopy of bronze and red

What waits to bloom where bud as yet

Has not unveiled the thread within

The Future, a dark silhouette

That Today's colors will fill in

What waits to be a memory?

Where consequence and circumstance

Insist upon the courtesy

Of how and why we choose to dance

Who knows the woe that waits to be
The joy still set out of our reach
Where Love, in perfect sympathy
Lends lessons only tears can teach

What waits to be revealed where we

Walk through a way as yet untrod?

Who knows but this; that we will be

Held and beheld by faithful God

© Janet Martin

 Looking unto Jesus
the author and finisher of our faith;
who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame,
and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Heb.12:12

 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us,  as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.
2 Cor.1:10-11

This poem was inspired in part,
as I prayed for my sister-in-law Karen who is still not able to walk since her fall a few weeks ago.
Hopefully a cat-scan this Friday will give some answers!
Please continue to keep her and Dave in your prayers!