Rejoicing in the Birth of Today

Oh, beauty of a newborn day

The old is folded, done away

We rise to see the east beget

What none have soiled or mangled yet

Ah, holy ground, virgin the sweep

Of moments hailing from yon deep

Offspring of heaven’s womb, gold-gray

In beauty of a newborn day

Oh, Duty, surely we are blessed

To bear the scepter of life’s best

Where God graces time’s common tray

With beauty of a newborn day

…and all that He requires then

Is that we try and try again

For yester’s old is done away

In the beauty of newborn day

Where God saw fit to extend thus

Time’s Little Bit to all of us

Dare we then, to forget to pray

And thank Him for this newborn day?

© Janet Martin

This newborn day is shaping up to be a scorcher! I better go out to the garden before it gets too hot. I'm hoping its duties include doing  sweet corn if its ready because tomorrow my help goes back to school!

Happy Labor Day to all!
Aren't you humbly glad we have work to labor at...
...to enjoy its sense of worth?!

September's Living-room

Today we are easy to please

September's lease forgives and stuns

Fathoms of life-discrepancies

With a dew-dipped puddle of sun

Flower gardens flaunt front row seats

Where Cricket-minstrels serenade

The minute-hand as it competes

With sweet September, heaven-made

September's door is wide open 

September's floor is petal-strewn

September's window is unframed

September is time's afternoon

Today we ask for nothing more

Than this chicory and sedge hold

...The pathos of what lies in store

Is cradled in a sea of gold

We revel 'neath blue-beveled tide

Baroness in a beggar’s room

Satisfied to be satisfied

By September’s derelict bloom

© Janet Martin

What Do You Hold?

What do you hold within your hold

New day that breaks through dark with gold

And grants another second chance

To we, the partners in time’s dance

What do you veil where night grows pale

And gathers its gray from earth’s dale

Pink sedums blush, the blue brook laughs

Mercy signs flower-autographs

What do carry in your hand

To vex our plans with the unplanned

What spills from heaven to earth’s sod?

Ah yes, but this, the love of God

© Janet Martin

Do Something

Do something; time’s free moments run through our fingertips

Today is like a threshing-floor through which its measure slips

Pray when The Hand that grants our portion of life’s love-learn-laugh

Sifts the harvest of our lives He will find more than chaff

Do something, while the morning sun climbs into the noon sky

While there is still today, do something more than serving ‘I’

Before the dust has settled on another nevermore

Do something that will ring the bells of joy on heaven’s shore

Do something; God knows the intentions of a human heart

And He expects no less than this; that we would do our part

No deed or gift will be too small if rendered in His name

And no excuse will satisfy God if we decline Him

© Janet Martin

 If one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?

James 2:16

…but do something, urges Deidra, at the end of this post

where she provides links to answer our questions of how, what, where

we can help in the refugee crisis.

Let’s be real. Two things that cross miles readily

Are our dollars and our prayers!

But What Can We Really Do To Help?

image source

But what can we really do that would help, asked Jim when we were talking about the crisis a few minutes ago…

I don’t know, I said, 

but what if we all looked into the mirrors and asked ourselves…

What can I do to help?

What if,

After our eyes were opened

Our ears heard their cries

And we would open

Our doors,

Wallets,

Arms,

Spare-bed-rooms,

Jars of food,

What if we stretched out our dining-room tables

And cried

‘Come, eat’

What if we did with less

So they could have more?

What if we became uncomfortable

To bring them comfort?

Instead of reaching for our phones

What if we all reached out?

Instead of saying ‘I wish’

What if we said ‘I will’

What if we were serious when we ask

‘But what can I do’

And we would pray as if their lives

Depended upon it?

© Janet Martin

This article by Deidra Riggs at High Calling is very helpful in helping us who are asking 'how can I help?'

Laugh, Little Aylan, Laugh

Ann expresses what I am sure is most of our hearts today...
and we  pour out our hearts in prayers and tears!

Dear Aylan,

Ignored in your life,

Immortalized in your death

Laugh little Aylan, Laugh

All down the streets of gold

Laugh at the feet of Jesus

Where you will never grow old

Oh, let your laughter sparkle

Oh, let your brown eyes dance

Oh, let your chin tilt up as God

Wipes your tears with His hands

Laugh, little Aylan, laugh

Let heaven's sheer, pure joy

Heal each sob of horror and hunger

Fear and sorrow, little boy

Sit at the banquet table

Run over celestial hills

Play forever with your brother

Where no teardrop spills

Laugh, little Aylan, laugh

For you will weep no more

Safe in the arms of Jesus 

Far from death's cold, friendless shore

Now you are loved like we should have

...We stare at a photograph

Shouldering sorrow, guilt and shame

Laugh, little Aylan, laugh 

Janet Martin

In memory of every little child who never knew laughter...

How can we look at our children and not want to help the hundreds of thousands of those still among us like Aylan?!