In True Humility...

Then let our light so shine

So that all men may see

And glorify the God of love

In true humility

Then let our motive be

In everything we do

To let love’s true humility

Shine through and through and through

For all that we might be

‘tis only be God’s grace

That we find true humility

And thereby glimpse his face

The utterance of ‘I’

Is oft selfish and weak

But if we would let God’s love shine

Then we must ever seek

…with true humility

From gracious God above

The will to find the way to shine

His everlasting love

© Janet Martin

Inspired by the poem below by Emily Dickinson...

Part Three: Love

VIII

THAT I did always love,
I bring thee proof:
That till I loved
I did not love enough.
That I shall love alway,	5
I offer thee
That love is life,
And life hath immortality.
This, dost thou doubt, sweet?
Then have I	10
Nothing to show
But Calvary.

When It Rains...

  

It rained, little guy slept long, I wrapped gifts, did housework and watched/listened to this movie...so good!

When it rains its gray tinsel unchains

Rivers of rushing refrain

Stripped treetops lie, not against the sky

But in puddles on the lane

Its madrigal weeps from echo-laden deeps

And rouses soul-poetry

For the pen is a Muse filled with yesterday’s blues

Stirred by the air’s broken sea

When it rains thought roves a terrain

That nobody else can see

It opens a door through which mind-pictures pour

Painted on memory

And there on its street pool thought-years bittersweet

Drenching both faces and sod

Rending the heart with love’s mosaic art

Spilling in patterns from God

When it rains earth accepts heaven’s strains

As if they were azure –gold hymns

The trees on the lane never balk or complain

But stretch wide their four-season limbs

Embracing the song as it drips, low and long

Oh, could it be that they know

when this song dies and slips soft from the skies

The sun will be sweeter somehow?

© Janet Martin

'they' are forecasting gray songs until at least Friday...

This Christmas...

May these carols we sing

and the songs that we hum

simply be worship's 

continuum

Janet~

Upon Time's Season-seasoned Hills...

Upon Time’s season-seasoned hills and plains nothing is new

Yet we see newness rise to light the skies when night is through

And we see bud and bloom relent where bent limb is soft-stripped

before spring-newness stirs again where autumn-tatters dripped

Oh, there is nothing new under Time’s sun, the prophet told

And though discovery may stun even this new is old

For man will ever fit The Plan ordained before time was

His season-seasoned knowledge subjected to higher laws

Time’s teeny tick and tock unlocks newness in ancient form

Its ethereal allotment can take seasoned hearts by storm

And even as dusk’s shadows fall we dare to dream anew

Both young and old, of morrow’s open-minded avenue

Like generations gone before, we gaze with widened eyes

Astonished at the new ways that the old can still surprise

As we learn for ourselves how swift a lifetime can unfold

…upon time’s season-seasoned sweep of new swaddled in old

© Janet Martin

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.

Lam. 3:22-23

Of Paths and Purpose

 

May this our hunger be

As earth-wrought paths we trod

Not wealth or health or luxury

But this; the love of God

May this our purpose be

As plains and hills we plod

Not fame or fortune’s vanity

But this; to live for God

May this our vision fill

Time's sprint twixt sky and sod

Leads not to dust-ash pinnacles

But is the road to God

May this our solace be

…not of vain, carnal fraud

But fully trusting, knowing we

Will soon be home with God

© Janet Martin

 But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded."  

2 Chron. 15:7

November-Gray December

 Our November was more like December; white

Now December has been for the most part, November gray…

The fog lies long and lower than the treeline by the fence

It lolls upon the sullen lawn in moody dissonance

The far side of the yard is veiled like nature’s mourning bride

Home is a charcoal button on a mist-cloaked countryside

Sight cannot satisfy its wanderlust; where is the sky?

Is it still blue above this mute and morbid lullaby?

Where middle-day is drowsy in silk-muffled filigree;

Time’s gossamer appointments mantled in a weightless sea

Soulful and sorrow-like it sweeps in soundless magnitude

The pastureland is swaddled in a stance meek and subdued

Dusk overtakes the afternoon at three o-clock or four

Earth is a muffled moment-drop on heaven’s ocean floor

© Janet Martin

If The Looking-glass Revealed The Truth...

Oh, if the looking-glass would show us as we truly are

Then we would blush and rush to hide beneath night’s deepest bar

And we would cry aloud, not proud, knowing our need of grace

From Heaven’s One one who gave His Son to save this wretched race

…and we would see Calvary’s tree and those thieves at His side

Would not be nameless but would look a lot like you and I

And if the looking-glass revealed what skin veils like a sheet

Then we would fall upon our knees and kiss Love’s nail-scarred feet

...and our boast would ever be the Love of Jesus Christ

Bethlehem’s Babe who came to be a Lamb of sacrifice

Once and for all; oh, is there any that can out-love He

Who laid His hands beneath the nails and died for you and me?

Yes, if the looking-glass would show us how we really are

Then we would bow and worship mercy’s bright and Morning Star

And if the looking glass revealed more than flesh-face and hand

Then we would love, knowing without God’s grace ah, who would stand?

© Janet Martin

 

 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
    O Lord, who could stand?

But with you there is forgiveness,
    that you may be feared. Ps. 130:3-4

May He, Jesus be the One we worship this Christmas season,

May joy not the be the tree, presents or any other reason

But may it be, as we behold Jesus the Christ-child King

An over-flowing gladness the makes heaven's joy-bells ring...