Lord, Then Help Us Hear

Speak to us Lord; then help us hear

The noise of World is loud and proud

Where lust-of-flesh-and-eye-cries leer

At motley misfits in its crowd

Speak to us Lord; then help us trust

And let our faith intercept fear

Lord, grant to meek vessels of dust

The ears to hear, then let us hear

Speak to us Lord; then help us share

The love that Your love stirs in us

And boldly let our lives declare

Your Way, your Truth, your Life, Jesus

© Janet Martin

My, My, How Blessed We Are...

No matter where we look, nature is in full-spill mode these days...

Wonder is a daily surprise

Nature, a treasure jar

Of seasons spilled beneath Time's skies

'My, my, how blessed we are'

Nothing we do or say can change

The will of nature's way

No sweep of hand can rearrange

The order of Today

The matrix of love's give-and-take

Of sun and moon and star

Bestows to us the loaf we break

'My, my, how blessed we are' 

Then, lest we are distracted by

That which we cannot see

Let us repent and satisfy

Time with humility

...and wonder at the glad surprise

In nature's treasure jar

Trusting its Giver with our cries,

'My. my, how blessed we are'

Janet~

 The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
 For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.
Psalms 24: 1-2

From 'Dear Me' to Dear You :)

All our frantic 'Dear me-ing' cannot make 'them' see what life insists on teaching in its own time...

I cannot force into your head

The lessons I have learned

But must wait patiently instead

While your insight is earned

I cannot make you understand

Until perhaps you've worn

The sweat and tear, the prayer-clasped hand

Heart-strings, stretched, tattered, torn 

I cannot force with force, wisdom

Time's daily no return

Comes from the Hand of He who loves

And keeps us as we learn

Mom~ aka Janet

The More We Live and Learn

The more we live the more we learn

The more we learn we see

How much remains for us to learn

Whoever we may be

The more we live the more we learn

To live right where we are

Because the future soon is past

And never very far

The more we live the more we learn

To honestly admit

How very little we full-know

Of what we thought we did

© Janet Martin

...but this one thing we desire to learn and know more and more
There is none like You, Lord!

Psalm 86:8-13

 Among the gods there is none like you, Lord;

no deeds can compare with yours.

All the nations you have made

will come and worship before you, Lord;

they will bring glory to your name.

For you are great and do marvelous deeds;

you alone are God.

Teach me your way, Lord,

that I may rely on your faithfulness;

give me an undivided heart,

that I may fear your name.

I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart;

I will glorify your name forever.

For great is your love toward me;...

This Slip-slipping Thing

History does not change

Save for the scope of it

Future is the Perhaps whereon

We dare to dream a bit

But Ever-present Now

Before it disappears

Is all we have to have and hold

As it weaves yester-years

Sometimes I crave for That

Which once fell through my touch

The gossamer of have-and-hold

A thread we cannot clutch

But cherish as it slips

From Here to There, the skein

Whereby eons unravel, love

Is dripped in moment-mien

…as history expands

Its panoramic cast

Adapting as time's newest strands

Are caught and woven fast

To that vast tapestry

Soft-vexing our clasp

With fragments of finality

Slip-slipping through our grasp

 

© Janet Martin

Happy 21st Birthday, Melissa...

Glimpses Of What Heaven's Happiness Will Be

No matter who we are and what we do...life is imperfect. 

We've got problems and we always will but here and there God drops bits of Perfect into our messes and we are glad...

This little life, which tests our thankful patience

Offers simple blessings to keep us company

Stirring within us sweet fore-tasted glimpses

Of what, perhaps, Heaven and its happiness will be

Simple things are tourniquets to stem the tide of longing

And satisfy with commonness, our Want

Cup of tea, a mixing bowl, a stove, chatter of children

The kindness of a grinning kitchen-plant

Hello, little duty, of garden plot or pots and pans

What did I do to deserve such loveliness as thine?

Oh, may I do you the honor of serving with gentle hands

And never clench with crass ungratefulness what is not mine

© Janet Martin

Last night Emily and Rob dropped by, Melissa called, Matt and Victoria were home and the kitchen was a tea and cookie haven of laughter and chatter…

Today was a domestic salad bowl of cooking-cleaning-laundry-and little boys ;-).

Prelude to Paradise

Across earth’s patient high and low

A beaming tide of morning breaks

Midnight deserts its marbled lakes

As on the air the ebb and flow

Of dark to light bids dreamers rise

To toil on spoils of paradise

Is there a day fairer than this?

All other days have fled away

To boulevards of Yesterday

And who can enter that abyss?

Behold, the gold that gilds the skies

And bids us dream of paradise

The earth is full of graves, but we

Who seek salvation’s sacred goal

Made not for flesh but for the soul

Know graves are but the Thing we see

As we struggle toward The Prize

In Time’s prelude to Paradise

Across earth’s albatross of loss

And Mercy’s sundry attributes

The noise of man’s carnal disputes

Would be the very death of us

Save for the One who parts skies

And points the way to Paradise

© Janet Martin

I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. John 9:4

Then Jesus told them, "You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going. John 12:35