Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Awesome Acknowledgement



Oh God, who can paint on an infinite nothing?
Has ever a man brushed his thought on the air?
Who on this earth can arrange the vast heavens?
Or shift nebulosity with naught but a stare?

Who can design, from the seed its fulfillment?
Man can do nothing but what you allot
The fruit of the field, of forest and garden
Blooms by the measure of Creator’s thought

Who teaches the bud of flower to open?
Or tells the tree its season to leaf?
Has ever a man plucked the rain from the heavens?
Or ordered the wind’s velocity to cease?

How fearful the greatness of our dependence
But for a God who loves us so much
That not one pebble escapes His vigilance
Hope and forgiveness exudes every touch

…and He who arranges the colors of heaven
Or stuns man’s babble to quieted awe
Seeks ultimately, intimately, the best for His children
For in Heaven and earth there is none like God

© Janet Martin

No one is like you, O LORD; you are great, and your name is mighty in power. Jer. 10:6

We gathered there...some on the bluff, others down on the beach
each with our own version of  'watching the sun set...'






Of Blind Pursuit...




How vain the blind pursuit of man
How feeble is its cheer
How pithy the desires that span
This transient hemisphere
Of dust and lust, of sin and sod
If our trust is not in God

A little joy, a little grief
A little youthful glance
Each season of existence brief
We laugh, we weep and dance
But oh, what futile scope we plod
If our hope is not in God

Disappointment and delight
A gasp upon the air
A gathering of day and night
Of dreaming and despair
But oh, what purpose fills our thought
If we have put our faith in God

© Janet Martin

 He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet
 no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end;
I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.

Eccles. 3:11-12 

Sunday, May 20, 2012

I Know...




I do not know…
before the sun
cajoles the western sky
what will befall,
but this I know
the Lord keeps you and I
I do not know 
what waits beyond
the dark and distant hill
but this I know
before me goes
a Father's perfect will
and this I know
the unknown waits
and I, a shell of dust
can simply place
my hand in His
and in His wisdom trust

© Janet Martin

Wordless Truths


 
You moved me with your pretty speech
It left me somewhat stirred
For there is much allurement
In the sentiment of word

But I am getting older
And the truth; I’m learning well
There is much more told in action
That word can never tell

© Janet Martin

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Torrents from Above...


We offer you our mangled blooms
Of bent and broken stem
The remnant of vague promises
So common unto men

We lift, in blushing guilt and shame
Our stammered salutation
As we seek hope within the Name
Of mercy and compassion

We repeat our confessions
At the alter of His grace
Unworthy of the miracle
That flows to human race

For in return He gives to us
In torrents from above
For our debt His pardon
His forgiveness and His love

© Janet Martin

Of Mystery and Mornings...



The quiet leans in closely
As the early light expands
And navy yields to the caress
Of morning’s gentle hands

Angels in silken garments
Brush the line twixt dark and day
With effervescent whispers
They ease deeper shades away

Mystery treads the stillness
Of the unknown like a bloom
Starting to press the barriers
Of its darkened waiting room

We step onto the shoreline
Of a mighty river’s flow
As He who holds this day’s design
And gives the sun its glow…

…assures us in the solitude
Of grace that will not flea
And He knows every petal
That drifts into Time’s vast sea

The quiet leans in closely
As this hushed and sacred hour
Nudges from the bud unfolding
A new and perfect flower

© Janet Martin

Wait on the Lord and keep His way
And He shall exalt thee to inherit the land.
When the wicked are cut off thou shalt see it. Ps. 37:34



Friday, May 18, 2012

When Trying to Appease Wanderlust remember...



Way out there
On the other side
Of where earth and heaven meet
Is someone's
Ordinary day
On an ordinary street

Way out there
On that ethereal line
Where the sea touches the sky
Is another gulf
Of open space
Stretching to the by and by

Way out there
Where the timber-line
Bars the dreamers view
Another piece
Of land and sky
Exists- same green, same blue

© Janet Martin

Cherished Moments~



We know too well
What must be will be
So cherish each moment
Then set it free

Waste not and want not
Fulfillment is this
To cherish each moment
Of fleeting ‘what is’

We cannot reach
What was or will be
So cherish the moment
That rests on your knee

A life well-lived
Is done, not in years
But in cherishing moments
Before they disappear

Softly and tenderly
See how they slip
Sweet, cherished moment
From life’s fingertips

The thought of forever
I cannot grasp
So I’ll cherish each moment
Of you, in my clasp


© J~

A week ago the dandelion fields were a sea of gold...this week silver.