Immutably

We are the workmanship of He

Who loves mankind immutably

The work that He prepared us for

Is brimming from dawn’s beaming door

Where set among the blooms of June

And heavens hung with bluest noon

We never know what waits to be

From He who loves immutably

And fills the way we are with worth

Then calls us ‘the salt of the earth’

Where this calling of High Esteem

Demands of us more than daydream

Though we should all take time to look

Into a silver-spangled brook

And bow beneath the hierarchy

Of He who lavishes the tree

And stirs the dark with ruddy bow’r

And probes the bud to leaf and flow’r

Arranging on favors of morn

The highs and lows of rose and thorn

Good-byes, hellos, laughter and tear

Soft-meld to make a life, my dear

But never out of reach of He

Who loves us all immutably

© Janet Martin

So much sorrow,

So much sickness

So much we will never know

Still the favor

Of God's kindness

Lends the grace whereby we go

So much longing

So much looking

For the peace not of this world

So much mercy

Overflowing

From the jars of dawn unfurled!

So much reason to reach for God's Hand where the sands of new day brim

Then, no matter what is waiting He will keep us close to Him 

Simply Learning

Little did the work-soiled farmer who stopped in the middle of a very busy day

realize what a portrait of daddy-love he 'painted'; 

...sitting in a wooden rocker beside his 4 yr. old birthday girl

at lunch yesterday, opening gifts and reading cards.

 (his 'looking back' will hopefully hold dear these precious moments)

Little 3 yr. old Girl, so excited to be invited was very proud of the gift she brought to give...

(she really wanted to keep it!)

(...but those are always the best gifts to give, aren't they; the ones we wish we could keep!)

When the party was over she asked if she could run up-stairs one last time so I followed her up and heard her say to the tea-set now arranged on the Birthday Girl's bed.

"good-bye, tea-party dishes. I will miss you"

I try hard not to look back and wish for things I cannot change. 

Its a good thing to be able to forgive ourselves and others for fumbles then let go and move on,

 hopefully with a nugget of wisdom and grace retained as 'reward'!

Looking back can be a lesson in reproach and raw regret

If we overlook the reason; we were simply learning yet

And those trip-and-fumble follies would be hallmarks of disgrace

If a headlong stumble handed only mud upon the face

Looking back can be a lesson in humility and love

For if we are truly honest there is evidence to prove

We are all-together students of desire’s scars and dreams

Where the days of Simply Learning are not over yet, it seems

Looking back can be a lesson in forgiveness at its best

Then, when its kind grace is granted we have courage for the rest

Where earth’s School of Life is filled with first-time-for-this fellowmen

And we all are Simply Learning (let’s all just be kinder then)

Looking back can be a lesson in learning to look ahead

And be very, Very mindful of this now-moment instead

So when its thread falls behind us; stitches none can rearrange

Then its looking back won’t bind us to the Things we cannot change

© Janet Martin

 Let your eyes look forward;

fix your gaze straight ahead...

Prov.4:25

What Waits Within the Wings...

I promise I did not write this just so I could post another butterfly photo😉

What waits within the wings where Time unfolds its day to day

Is anybody’s guess but One to whom we all should pray

Then as we entrust The Unknown to His kindness and care

It lifts the weight that makes us groan with worry’s dark despair

What waits within the wings is never grace-of-God deprived

When pulses quicken with ‘what-if’ He whispers soft inside

Where He who calmed the violent wind and waves with ‘peace, be still’

Is He who silences fear’s storms if faith yields to His will

Aha, aha, naysayers scoff as trouble rends the prow

And all they see is Misery of little Here and Now

Blind, until belief melts the scales that knowledge cannot rend

As Word that never fails bestows what no one can pretend

What waits within the wings are steppingstones that skim time’s sod

Where feet carry the soul of man back to the arms of God

And then, oh, sacred then, when we with that last exhale see

His face, what waits within the wings will be Eternity

© Janet Martin

2 Cor.2: 6-16

 Among the mature, however, we speak a message of wisdom—but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of the mysterious and hidden wisdom of God, which He destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it. For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Rather, as it is written:

“No eye has seen,

no ear has heard,

no heart has imagined,

what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

But God has revealed it to us by the Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of man except his own spirit within him? So too, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. And this is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.

The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is not subject to anyone’s judgment. “For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

The Weight That Waiting Brings...and other Thoughts

I had to chuckle at the coffee break question on The Weather Network 

on this lovely almost-summer morning....

Coffee Break question

Would you rather have a day at; -25 C with no wind, or -25 C after the windchill?

 "Just think!" sighed Victoria dreamily last night, "in Heaven
we will be able to lie in a field of flowers with NO ants crawling on us!!!"

The weight that waiting brings would wring the heart with worry, oh

But for the blest assurance from the grace whereby we go

The green that grants the blush rush of blooms by the brook and fence

Invites us to wander with God and His kind Providence

The door twixt nevermore and evermore is pushed ajar

A glorious invitation to exactly where we are

The more we have the more we want, sometimes it seems to me

Thus it behooves us to test wishes with humility

Do not despair; the cares of life, for all their hurt and ache

Are beheld by the One who loves us and makes no mistake

The Mystery that hoists the mighty mast of Hope’s ahoy

Anchors the vessel in a Rock that nothing can destroy

Take heed lest greed usurps the seed where want and need enmesh

And we, without awareness serve the lordship of the flesh

Ah poetry, ah, poetry, still waiting to be written

Here’s hoping we will always suffer, poem-hunger smitten

© Janet Martin

 This is the style of poem that has the potential to grow as the day unfolds...

(what waits in the wings, who knows but One?!)