Oh, Isn't It Amazing?

 ...For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. John I:16

Oh, isn’t it amazing as we stand where morning’s door

Swings softly outward beckoning where none have gone before

And gold melts into puddles where the gray of yesterday

Is gone and done, and God alone rolls out Time’s untried way

Oh, isn’t it amazing how with shadow, there is light

How God, in loving tenderness slips new day over night

And then in eager fullness He, in spite of our mistakes

Spills mercy into morning pouring more grace upon grace

Oh, isn’t it amazing, how where apprehensions groan

God begs us to go boldly into this day’s new Unknown

For He will never leave us or forget this troubled place

But with His fullness satisfies Want, with grace upon grace

Oh, isn’t it amazing, though our track-record is grim

Still love implores with open doors and glimpses rich with Him

For God, so rich in mercy from a high and holy place

Pours into us His fullest blessing of grace upon grace

© Janet Martin

...and it seems fitting to post this favorite hymn by a favorite band (we miss you, George)

Wily Genius...

To fill my gaze with you, I cannot do

For Time, the wily genius obliterates my view

And all those frames I vowed to keep

Dissolve to nothing while I sleep

Hush, vapor silhouette of you; hold still

How is it that you fade against my will?

And though my heart is full of you, alas

I cannot keep one tittle in time’s glass

And while the sugar-coated hours run

Like laughter-colored streams beneath the sun

I vow anew to keep unsullied this

…a moment fading even as we kiss

Against my will I must refill my eyes

Not with what was; that is dirt's foolish guise

But with what is; for it is all we have

As Time the wily genius makes us brave

© Janet Martin

How often do we do this; drink deeply of a moment vowing to keep it forever, only to have it melt beneath our touch?

Closed Corridors

The perils of a pen and script

Can keep one fearful and tight-lipped

Lest one brave touch unveils the art

In corridor from head to heart

Where we try hard to keep intact

Those love-scarred walls of all we lack

But on a night of pale moonlight

When all is still save for the flight

Of mist-maned breeze lolling in trees

Thus stirring want and memories

It is not hard to yield one’s will

To invitations of a quill

I cannot speak with pen and ink

Those thoughts I hardly dare to think

And yet within me pounds a surf

Of poetry on guarded turf

Where I am too fearful to tread

…that corridor from heart to head

© Janet Martin

So It Goes

 Yesterday was one of those days I didn't want to end...but it did. My niece and her fiance(his family also friends of ours) got married. I love weddings! so much. As I listened to the speeches it struck me again how precious each day is and the memories we take from them as they take their place in The Past.

So it goes; life’s highs and lows

Are brushed to closures ether-wrought

Where the refrains of what remains

Unchains their strains in naught but thought

So it goes; one season flows

Into the next; a seamless spawn

Where laughter, tears, despair and cheer

Soon disappears in years bygone

So it goes; the bud, the rose

Will soon compose their after math

Where we return to learn or yearn

For petals scattered on Time’s path

So it goes; the zephyr blows

Where clocks disclose life’s give and take

We cannot cling to anything

Save for the memories we make

© Janet Martin

This God We Ought to Love

 More messages of God and Love here 
and here

This God we ought to love

Because He loved us first

Seems to be pushed way back in line

By other gods death-cursed

This God we seek to love

In ways hard to express

Knows our heart of heart and thus

Knows what we should confess

This God we yearn to love

But fumble in our reach

Forgives, His love is strong enough

To test and try and teach

This God is grace and love

And pleads on our behalf

Through Jesus Christ we can be saved

From death’s eternal wrath

This God is Love supreme

No other god can boast

A love so great that it saves souls;

Redemption’s uttermost

This God of gods is love

Though oft perceived unjust

He knows and calls each one by name

For He created us

For this great God of love

For all our shame and sin

Desires our love so we

May learn to love like Him

© Janet Martin

 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. John 1:3-5