Those 'Little' Things

 Don't you just love-LOVE *oven-cleaning day?! NOT!, but...

 ...it's the payoff that prompts us to scrub-scrub-scrub, right?

*for those who do not own a self-cleaning oven...(I was thinking of trading in this oldie because I couldn't get it clean anymore after choosing not to use those toxic oven-sprays that also seemed to fry the burner. Then a friend told me to try a paste of baking soda and water, spread it on, let it sit for a while and wipe off. It works! only the really black baked on residue required hard scrubbing)

Some Tremclad stove-paint touch-up on the top and yay! there is still some life left in it after all!

So it is with a lot of life's  'little  things'.

It's not the menial Must of it but the hopeful trust of it that keeps us focused on the bigger picture!

We may think it isn’t much

The little bit we give today

But, we don’t see the full-fruit of

Those deeds we do,

Or many words we say

We may think it isn’t much

Those things that we procrastinate

But oh, we never know, my love

If morrow will

Forever be too late

We may think it isn’t much

Touch-taste-pray-trust and try-try-try

But, there is so much more, my dear

Than that which meets

The oft forgetful eye

We may think it isn’t much

Those ‘little things’ that seem so small

But given time we just might find

Perhaps they weren’t

So little after all

© Janet Martin

 And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good. 

2 Thess.3:13

Inevitable Thus...

Dusk-shadow reaches then recedes

The limb of lusty leaf-song bleeds

Sweet summer long flaunts bounty's blooms

‘ere flower throngs fill nameless tombs

New mother tends her baby wee

Still dumb to life’s swift misery

As we who mothered they learn Thus;

Surrender oft repeats its Must

© Janet Martin

My grandmother's gentle reprimand to my youthful rebellion returns even now in middle-age...

"Surrender is only hard if we struggle"

Of Heaven and Earth...

All praise to Thee, Father of heaven and earth

Thou who turns the tide bringing springtime's rebirth

Thou who dost not fetter the colorless sod

But instills its depth with love-letters from God

We worship thee, Ruler of Heaven and Earth

Thou does not reward us with what we deserve

But over and over our footsteps embark

Where spring succeeds winter and dawn succeeds dark 

We glorify Thee, God of Heaven and earth

Thou who fathers foundling and friar and firth

Thou who begets all things beautiful, oh Lord

We praise, worship, glorify Thee evermore

Janet Martin

Of Morrow In Slow Motion

 Started to compose this on my walk/run this evening as I watched the day begin to disappear.

Hush, hush, daylight is fading now

Rose blush on time’s chameleon brow

Then cease thy rush where sorrows blow

And still thy wayward sighing

The scenes that pass before our gaze

To fill the heart and mouth with praise

Dissolve where west is set a-blaze

Then dimmed like embers dying

The woodland wears a russet crown

The fallow field, a golden gown

Before the soundless stripping down

-Down-down in deepened shadow

The air like ether tallow drips

The flare that lights dawn’s candle slips

Today melds to fond fellowships

That only thought can hallow

The tide that bears time’s heirs soft-seeps

In blue, then ever bluer deeps

Until the billow of it sweeps

The earth into its ocean

Where night rolls through dusk’s lowered bars

And showers our sight with stars

Hush, hush, while heaven spills its jars

Of morrow in slow motion

© Janet Martin

Of Mercy Renewed...

From vaulted hue the New transcends

Time’s archived loss and dividend

Hope’s orient halo crowns the globe

Persuasion wears a royal robe

Where fear or faithful fortitude

Will commandeer Mercy renewed

From heaven-height to earthy deep

Fathoms of moment-morsels seep

Each canon freed in tick-by-tock

As dream-deed-impact interlock

To prove, with each edict decreed

The matrix of our mortal need

The loom that weaves Bygone untwists

The proof that grace of God persists

It unfurls like a golden scroll

From He, the Saviour of the soul

To we, of Life received, denied

Surging as one to Death’s Divide

No certainty abides but He

Who tips the grail that fills the sea

Who grips the veil that keeps in place

The Mystery of hope and grace

Where, when its shroud is torn in twain

Nobody returns to explain

© Janet Martin

 Why, then, do you judge your brother? Or why do you belittle your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 11It is written: “As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow before Me; every tongue will confess to God.” 12So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.…

Romans 14:10-12

 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

2 Peter 3:9

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. 18Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.…

John 3:16-18