Of Sky-lines and Storehouses

Out on the skyline the morning brims, red

Time’s surreal storehouse is not empty yet

To God the glory, to mankind the call

As we return to love’s laboring all

Giver and taker alike co-exist

Golden twilight to dawn’s silver-soft mist

Draped on a lintel of yesterdays, my

How its sheer tenure oft vexes the eye

Yet even now spills what no man can keep

Voracious volley of swift season-sweep

Ah, the heart’s fabric is twisted and stretched

Yet never torn as new patterns are sketched

We, beneath pencils that none can control

Of sunset stencils and daybreak cajole

Set our sights on Time’s packed street of sod

Primed with a sheet of miles no one has trod

Though it may seem that we often repeat

Daily routines, newness spills at our feet

Pray to the Lord as He draws on the sky

Mankind’s reward of new moments to try

That we embrace what God’s grace gifts to dust

…life is a highway of learning to trust

As, out on the skyline a new day brims red

God’s storehouse of mercy is not empty yet

© Janet Martin

The LORD'S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.  Lam. 3:22-23

God Loves Us All...

It's nice to have a rainy day and catch up on a bit of reading. My niece volunteered with Urban Promise for a year before heading back to school. We will continue to pray for her and the kids she had to leave.Read her farewell here
Aren't you glad as we pray God can send people to answer and minister to needs we leave with Him!?



The whole world over where ever we are
To God there is no near or far
He loves us all, no one exempt
Regardless of mankind's contempt

He loves us all, disdainful glares
Cannot rebuff what God declares
No one escapes His tender view
'Lord, teach us how to love like you' 

You love us all no matter what
Your one and only Son's shed blood
Redeems the sinner, saves the soul
For God so loved, so loves the world

Janet Martin


Please also pray for my friend's step-dad going in for very serious surgery tomorrow.
( Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Ps.139:16)

 1. The love of God is greater far Than tongue or pen can ever tell; It goes beyond the highest star, And reaches to the lowest hell; The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win; His erring child He reconciled, And pardoned from his sin. * Refrain: Oh, love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong! It shall forevermore endure— The saints' and angels' song.
2. When hoary time shall pass away, And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall, When men who here refuse to pray, On rocks and hills and mountains call, God's love so sure, shall still endure, All measureless and strong; Redeeming grace to Adam's race— The saints' and angels' song.
3. Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made, Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade; To write the love of God above Would drain the ocean dry; Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky.

Verse 3 was penciled on the wall of a narrow room in an insane asylum by a man said to have been demented. The profound lines were discovered when they laid him in his coffin.



 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.   John 4:10

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Rom.5:8

 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.  2 Pet.3:9

First Day of a New School-year Poem

That lull of sleepy summer morning ends

Across the countryside and city wends

The yellow bus, loaded with fears and cheers

As parents fuss, caught twixt both smiles and tears

And taunt of years that disappear like mist

Upon a strand all summer-tanned and kissed

The After is a pasture where thought strays

To trace the laughter of its yesterdays

Yet even in the After new Befores

Await; Time is a corridor of doors

Where none can see what waits behind the locks

Unsoldered by the shimmying of clocks

What precious cargo fills that school bus seat

Or streets, as back-packed past and present meet

The future, head-phoned and new-school-shoes-shod

Upon a path that their forefathers trod

Where mothers still blow kisses to the air

And fortify brave wishes with a prayer

© Janet Martin

The morning is full of I-can't-believe-how-fast-the-summer-went sentiment:)

Of Given Day

The floor of earth’s room is flecked with gold

The heart of summer spent

Where everything we hallow and hold

Is mercy, heaven-lent

Aha, sometimes it slips our minds

How, as the years unfold

The only thing we will leave behind

Are hulls of gifted gold

Inhale, exhale, for the air is sweet

With opportunity

The husks of blessing at our feet

Frame hind-sight’s legacy

And all that we can gather of it

Is what we give away

We cannot hoard one penny-bit

Of any given day

The gauntlet of an unfathomed gift

Trembles in every breath

The fall of moments sift and drift

From instant life to death

…as the floor of earth’s room is decked in gold

The gift of living sent

In twinkling tides; we hallow and hold

God's mercy, heaven-lent

© Janet Martin

Our Father who art in Heaven
Hallowed be Thy Name...Matt 6:9

Surrender of Summer and other Such Seasons

So it begins;

Subtle exchanges

Colors once vibrant

With hope’s new-born rush

Softly fall prey

In the day-night-to-day

To jaded complexions

Beneath time’s trite brush

So it begins;

Laughter polishes pictures

Ignoring the tincture

Of faraway things

That teases new color

Into verdant valor

Tugging more tautly

On loosened heart-strings

So it begins;

Rebellion, contrition

…nature surrenders

By heaven’s hand taught

Unlike the struggle

Where human condition

Battles submission

In ramparts of thought

So it begins;

We kiss sun-freckled grins

Smile for a while

At decoys in full-bloom

While that wall-flower clock

On the blue-sky sidewalk

Subtly silvers

The floor of earth’s room

 ©  Janet  Martin

Time's Treasure Hunt

Dawn draws its well-known center-piece

Up from Time’s yawning shore

As what began in Eden’s place    

Is fresh and new once more

Be kind, oh tick- and-tocking leap

Bestowal of God’s grace

This little thing we cannot keep

Spills into our embrace

And what is clothed in mystery

Will soon its bit unveil

Before it turns to history

Like ashes in a grail

And oh, before it is no more

God grant that we have tried

Not to increase our earthly store

But on time’s other side

…laid up more everlasting joy

Of riches dear and real

Where moth and rust do not destroy

Nor thieves break through to steal

For soon the wind that combs Time’s fields

Will still; we’ll rise to meet

Where none can see what death reveals

Of treasures at God’s feet

©  Janet Martin


 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:  Matt 6:19