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,...

Flawless Outpouring...

Heb.11:6

And without faith it is impossible to please God,

because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists

and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

What terrible misconceptions we believe,

what deadly mistakes we make

without faith...

'Wow', I commented the other day

'even in the thick of sorrow

other cares don't take a holiday!!'

Aren't you thankful God invites us to cast our care on Him

because He cares for us?!!

1 Pet.5:7

Humble yourselves, therefore,

 under God’s mighty hand,

 so that in due time He may exalt you.

 7Cast all your anxiety on Him,

 because He cares for you.

Ps.55:22

Cast your burden on the Lord,

And He shall sustain you;

He shall never permit the righteous to be [b]moved.

Even in the thick of sorrow

Creature care still finds its way

We are not made for tomorrow

God is faithful...for Today

Like a song flawlessly outpoured

The heavens declare, loud and clear

The glory of our loving Lord...

Not by goodness and grace devoid

God’s evidence shouts loud and clear

To keep Hope’s Creature overjoyed

Though Teacher vexes faith’s veneer

Where often sterling Wish is tried

Lest Want protects pride’s stumbling blocks

Lest Self is not humbly denied

Lest sight, not faith is how Boast walks/talks

…while longing’s nameless legions wage

A tug of war twixt fear and trust

And we are apt to prize the cage

Rather than Soul, veiled by frail dust

Not by God’s providence bereft

Nor by His Righteous Eye ignored

From the fissure in Mercy’s cleft

Today is flawlessly outpoured

Like the Lord’s love song undeterred

Hope soars once more, on eagle’s wings

No jot or tittle of God’s Word

Forgot; faith lifts Her voice and sings

For nothing is impossible

With God; then, what more do we need

Than worship, while the miracle

Matures, within faith’s mustard seed

Like a song flawlessly outpoured

The heavens declare, loud and clear

The glory of our loving Lord

Whose favour vexes faith's veneer 

Whose mercy, flawlessly outpoured

Fills frames with faithfulness renewed

God unfailingly keeps His Word

Then sing, with joyful gratitude 

© Janet Martin

Isa. 40:28-31

(read the whole glorious chapter HERE)

Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The LORD is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary;

His understanding is beyond searching out.

29He gives power to the faint

and increases the strength of the weak.

30Even youths grow tired and weary,

and young men stumble and fall.

31But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength;

they will mount up with wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not faint.

Prayer Changes Things

 Autumn morning awesomeness!

Psalm 36:7

How precious is Your loving devotion, O God,

that the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings!

Psalm 91:4

He will cover you with His feathers;

under His wings you will find refuge;

His faithfulness is a shield and rampart.

Prayer changes things. Amen

God, with each groan we bring

Gathers us like a Mother Hen

Beneath His Shelt’ring Wing

His gentle feathers warm us when

The gales of sorrow sting

Because hope that is seen

Is not hope, we learn trust

Because a dark glass bides between

Birth and death’s sacred Must

God tries the part content to lean

On acumen of dust

Because love never fails

Because God, who IS love

Orchestrates the law that prevails

With Eternal Enough

Love wills the tempest that assails

Faith's evidence to prove

Because our great God reigns

With love beyond compare

No matter what, His grace sustains

Us through life’s creature-care

Though all else fail, still He remains

To shelter from despair

Because His word is true

Faith has no cause to fear

Because God cares for me and you

We can ‘be of good cheer’

All He has promised, He will do

Prayer draws His Promise near

Praise God, prayer changes things

Surrender’s sweet release

Beneath the feathers of His wings

Faith finds hope, joy and peace

Then, pray whatever today brings

May humble prayers increase

© Janet Martin

1 John 5:14-15

14And this is the confidence that we have before Him: 

If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 

15And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask,

 we know that we already possess what we have asked of Him.

Psalm 145:19
He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; 

He hears their cry and saves them.

While God Works Together For Good...

Lucy's love for bikes is evident in her home décor...

Wall print 

cushion...

door-knob-bling...

Rom.8:28

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God,

to those who are the called according to His purpose.

The above reference is printed on a chalk board in my sister's Lucy's kitchen,

in the wake of her death;

 a chalkboard that always held a favourite quote, 

bible verse or nugget of wisdom...

Today marks one month since her passing 💔🙏

mentioned  HERE Sorrowful blog break)

The break turned out shorter than I thought it would.

I guess poetry is how I process life...and death

Yesterday our church family, along with extended family and friends

laid to rest a dear brother, age 60, 

our care pastor, as well as a husband, dad and grandpa 

who, only a few weeks previously, was diagnosed with cancer...

'life seems a blur of tears, prayers and indescribable comfort'

I texted my sister this morning as we remembered the one month mark

of Lucy's sudden departure!

(my brother-in-law/ Lucy's husband, said,

 'it feels like yesterday and a lifetime ago')

 ...exactly!! 

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Matt. 5:4 

Through the truth in the above verse, 

we are being incomprehensibly blessed

***

We do not understand the good that oft wears grief’s disguise

Lord, help us trust Thy hand that could have stayed the test that tries

But did not; help us yield our heart with ‘not my will but Thine’

While we behold the bitter part logic cannot define

While You work together for good the brokenness of dreams

And wills, and love misunderstood where mercy’s tide still streams

And works in ways foreign to us, oft ruled by what we see

Oh Lord, our God help us to trust the hope we have in Thee

…while you work together for good beyond most noble thought

Thy purpose, when Thy Hand that could have spared Thee, but did not

You loved, obedient to death (even death on a cross)

Then, help us, with each gifted breath to humbly suffer loss

While You work together for good this life’s troubles, oh God

Help us to not despise the rude appearance of Thy rod

But help us trust in Thee, without explanation’s demands

As we surrender every doubt into Thy nail-scarred hands

While You work together for good that which seems cruelty

While through the power of Your blood, hope abides faithfully

Through every circumstance unkind, while love and mercy pour/roar

Help us, with heart, soul, strength and mind to trust you more and more

© Janet Martin

I spend one day a week with my mother-in-law.

This afternoon while she snoozed I read through

the memories shared in this book by Lucy's friends and family,

(so touching and precious)

Until today, I just couldn't collect my thoughts enough to attempt writing anything

Today I tried...this is the last bit.

'Oh, how I miss her'

Guiltless My-My-My

Ps. 31:24

Be of good courage, 

And He shall strengthen your heart,

 All you who hope in the LORD.

I'm so thankful the above verse ministered to me yesterday

when I needed it desperately!

I'm so thankful for the constant reminders

that God will never leave me or forsake me,

but He comes to me sometimes through 

the care and compassion of fellowman,

and sometimes through His Word whispered to me!

Oh, pray we may seek to hide his Word in our hearts

to equip us for whatever today brings

I am so thankful that 'I can do all things

through Christ who strengthens me'

Phil.4:13

I was torn between writing in first person 'my'

or for every believer 'our'

I decided to make it tenderly, vulnerably and joyfully personal 

but the word 'our' can be easily substituted for 'my' as well

so we can 'rejoice in the Lord' together!

My Faith Has Found a Resting Place 

 (My Hope is Built) | Reawaken Hymns | 

 

 

My Jesus, I Love Thee

My Jesus, My Saviour - [Official Video Lyric] 

 

 My God is All I Need / My God is So Big (Live)

Because God is my help, my strength, the Savior of my soul

My Anchor, my Assurance when grief and dread’s billows roll

My Hope and my Salvation, my kind Comforter and Friend

My Cherished Consolation, my Beginning and my End

My dear Heavenly Father, my Healer when my heart breaks

My Closer-than-a-brother who never leaves or forsakes

My Light to pierce the darkness and my Wonder-fullest Praise

For His mercy and goodness that will follow, all my days

My Shepherd, my Defender, my Hunger and my Enough

My God, both fierce and tender in His everlasting love

My Courage, my Commander, my Confidence to endure

My Fortress, and my Armor and my Victory secure

My Excellent Creator, my faith’s Steadfast Cornerstone

My Faithful Mediator, my Interpreter of groan

My Heaven-intercession in my earthly-temporal

My Pardon for transgression, Love Incomprehensible

My Author and Perfecter as I walk by faith, not sight

My trustworthy Protector, my Confidante, my delight

My heart’s Ruthless Inspector, ere pride’s ruin masquerades

My all-knowing Director as each season blooms and fades

My All-in-all, All-seeing and my All-wise Counselor

The Reason for my being, my Peace in the midst of war

My Holiness, Jehovah, my Shelter, my Resting Place

My Glory-hallelujah for His all-sufficient grace

My Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow-and-Forevermore

My Joy, even in sorrow, my Captain who goes before

My Refuge, my Redeemer, my Escort through highs and lows

My Perfect Plan-frustrater, my Orchestrator of woes

My Greater-He-in-me than he that is in, of this world

He is my Might, my Majesty, my Eagle Wings unfurled

Because God IS, He sets me free from fear of death and hell

Because of His power in me I can do all things well

© Janet Martin

My Lord, I Did Not Choose You (Hymn 54)

My Help (Cometh From The Lord) - The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir

My Life Is In Your Hands + Sweet, Sweet Spirit: Song Session

Thankful (to God For All Eternity)

Heb.13:15

Therefore by Him (Jesus) 

let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, 

that is, the fruit of our lips, [d]

giving thanks to His name.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving Day!

Above all I am thankful for the precious promises

from God for us!

Yesterday morning's Sunday School lesson included these verses

Also included in the links in the poem below

Num.23:19

God is not human, that he should lie,
    not a human being, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act?
    Does he promise and not fulfill?

1 Cor.1:9

 God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship 

with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

 For chickens scratching in the yard...

For dawn, pretty as a postcard...

For fresh brewed cuppa joe or tea...

For autumn’s awe-evoking hues;...

For gardens, bent with granted spoil...

For health and strength to tend its Toil...

For gourd-shaped miracles we glean...

Then turn into supper cuisine...

For chickens scratching in the yard

For dawn, pretty as a postcard

Perched on earth’s eastward window ledge

Man's witness to God's honored pledge

For glimpses of God through a glass

Darkened (for now) by ‘days of grass’

For ways we are able to cope

Because of one little word, ‘Hope’

For seasons, as they grin and groan

Through carriages of skin and bone

For oceanic undertows

As joy and sorrow ebbs and flows

For fresh brewed cuppa joe or tea

For love of friends and family

For faith’s unrivaled happiness

Because God keeps His promises

For utter grief, because of love

For knowing God is strong enough

To bear a whole world’s weight of woe

He did! On a cross long ago

For truth, from His word that abides

To anchor Hope, lest shifting tides

Of Time should disillusion, oh

By what we see rather than know

For autumn’s awe-evoking hues;

Crimsons, yellows, bronze, greens and blues

Cheering the crooks where petals fell

In summer-long songs of farewell

For book-comrade’s fine company

Acquainting likes of you and me

With fellow-compadres, long gone

Yet, through ink-legacies, live on

For gardens, bent with granted spoil

For health and strength to tend its Toil

For gourd-shaped miracles we glean

And turn into supper cuisine

For so much beauty to behold

(God’s handiwork never grows old)

For wonder’s worship, bona fide

For tots who slow oft hurried stride

For bliss of heartthrob, humbly stirred

By gifts of butterfly-bloom-bird

By treetops tossing glossy manes

Not yet undone by autumn rains 

For heartfelt hugs as love's tears fall

For firm handshakes that say is all 

For peace beyond description's pow'r

God reserves for grief's rawest hour  

For comfort from handwritten art

Notes and verses to cheer the heart

And splash the sunshine of God's smiles

Through people to brighten dark miles 

 

For paths of righteousness to trod

While The Foolish, who deny God

Throng thoroughfares, in vain pursuit

Of this world’s unfulfilling fruit

For the kinship of Common Task

For Heaven’s Helper, if we ask

For food to eat and clothes to wear

And hands to hold/fold in thankful prayer

For blessings too profuse to count

For salvation’s unflagging fount

Over grace and truth’s Bedrock streams

The flood/blood that cleanses and redeems

For feasts, for both body and soul

To fit us where Fight’s billows roll

For the Good Shepherd, glorious

His rod and staff to comfort us

For Thoughts and Ways kindling man’s Why

For God’s extravagant reply

As we trust Him, faith's kind increase

Crowns brokenness with joy and peace

For mercies no mortal deserves

As wisdom weathers learning curves

For all the ‘laugh lines’ that we earn

In the classroom of live-and-learn

Oh Lord, the author of our days

Receive our sacrifice of praise

As faith’s cornucopia brims

With love’s ceaseless thanksgiving hymns

…because Your love, steadfast and sure

Holds Hope’s storm-battered bark secure

Until faith is eclipsed at last

By Sight, no longer darkly glassed

Then face to face we will adore

As all we wondered at before

Dissolves in thankful ecstasy

To God, for all eternity

Because He so loved you and me

© Janet Martin

For bliss of heartthrob, humbly stirred

By gifts of butterfly-bloom-bird...

For comfort from handwritten art

Notes and verses to cheer the heart

And splash the sunshine of God's smiles

Through people to brighten dark miles 

Just a few of a myriad of 'heart art' 💖🙏

(and to think that not so long ago I thought it was 'just a card'!!)

I'm so sorry for all the 'just a card's I never sent!

Promises (Official Music Video) - Matt Boswell & Matt Papa

Plea For Perseverance

To list all the ways today's poem was inspired, is difficult to encapsulate...

But it is a corralling of wonder wakened while pondering Heb.11 &12:1&2

By the showering of love, of sympathy,

from so many caring people, 

of comfort and encouragement shared from God's Word,

By devotions penned for such a time as this...

By the indescribable joy in sorrow 

through the Presence of peace God has promised if/as we trust Him,

through both the physical and spiritual storms and battles of faith/life! 

Let me not balk against faith’s test that I would never choose

Let me not fear what God deems best, nor His request refuse

Behold faith’s cloud of witnesses still surrounds you and me

The riches of God’s promises worth every wait-and-see

Let me not wallow in the why that tries the ties of love

But rather winnow my reply till worship is enough

As faith is drawn from shallows to the deeps of grief and loss

Let me be wholly hallowed by the power of the cross

Though the threshing fork pains me, may it drive away the chaff

Till only God sustains me, as I lean upon hope’s staff

For he who suffered in my stead, the uttermost of Grief

Will accomplish all He has said; ‘Lord, help mine unbelief’

For you have borne the bitter blows that prove who we most love

You grant the test faith undergoes to expose lack thereof

Then, help me not to falter beneath full surrender’s price

But let love be an altar laid with living sacrifice

Willing to suffer present loss for joy waiting to be

Counting it joy to bear the cross to faith’s maturity

Obedient, till Death’s Last Strife, that draws ajar the Door

That leads to everlasting life and joy forevermore

© Janet Martin

James 1:2-4

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,

 whenever you face trials of many kinds,

3 because you know that the testing of your faith 

produces perseverance.

4 Let perseverance finish its work 

so that you may be mature and complete, 

not lacking anything.

Only Trust Him-Alan Jackson