Perfect Reason For All Seasons...

In life’s seasons cold and dismal beauty does not change its ways

Hope still bridges hurt abysmal, dawn still brims with Mercy’s gaze

Love still keeps redemption’s promise, (nothing dis-annuls God’s Word )

In the middle of life’s winter spring is waiting undeterred

In the middle of the muddle that can vex the well-laid plan

When the ways of God befuddle the determined ways of man

Love still stands amidst the rubble like hope’s gonfalon unfurled

God is bigger than the trouble that torments this broken world

When the weight of woe would crush us but for grace that sets us free

When the ache of longing rushes like a river to the sea

Love still grants the Perfect Reason to let our spirits soar

For love gives to every season so much to be thankful for

© Janet Martin

 How good it is to sing praises to our God,
    how pleasant and fitting to praise him!

Psalm 147:1

Sometimes A Poem...

 What's your poem today?

Even gray days brim with beauty...

Sometimes wonder needs an outlet

Sometimes longing needs a home

Sometimes mem’ries need a locket

Sometimes rev’rie needs to roam

Sometimes then, it seems we need a poem

Sometimes weakness needs a shoulder

To lean on, like strength of ink

Sometimes, as we’re growing older

We like taking time to think

Sometimes a poem grants that tender link

Sometimes we want to remember

Tints that seasoned tides attract

So we try to save September

Like gold glimmers, snared and stacked

Where a poem leaves gleaned sheaves intact

Sometimes summer needs retracing

Sometimes winter needs a prayer

Sometimes the Thing we’re embracing

Disappears into thin air

Sometimes a poem drives away despair

Sometimes moments need no music

Save a ballad bittersweet

Sometimes beauty needs no showcase

Save the heart that skips a beat

Sometimes a poem is all the love we need

© Janet Martin

Beholding Faithful Father-God...

 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, 

that we should be called children of God!

1 John 3:1

We behold You where morning moors its ship on shores of blush and blue

Where circumstance is not by chance or love but for the chosen few

You greet us on dawn’s beaming street with what some deem a common nod

While all the while we’re witnessing the faithfulness of You, oh God

The rise and fall of all we cherish tunes the heart to treat Time well

How swift the gift of something new melts into mist where morning fell

Aha, the law of nature does not change its pattern or its pace

While all the while we’re witnessing the faithful lantern of Your grace

We behold you where mercy shakes the starry deep and dims the dark

New day unveils Hope’s awesome Door still open to Salvation’s Ark

Where all who enter find redemption, saved from Hades awful fate

While all the while we’re witnessing the holy agony of ‘wait’

…while you love to delight the eye with all that faithfulness imparts

Where wonder wakens worship, even in hard, atheistic hearts

Where Unbelief is still belief but in far less than faith defends

While all the while we’re witnessing Your Providence that grace extends

We behold You in whispered utterances veiled as day-to-day

Behold, what manner of mercy always brushes the night away

Behold, what bold and beautiful testaments bend the sky and sod

While all the while we’re witnessing the faithfulness of Father-God

© Janet Martin

For All We Face...

 Often the day is well on the way before the poem is complete...

and the lines get tucked in between toast, tea and other such crumbs and spills.

 

Let's pray our day is never not-so-well on its way 

because we didn't pray

We all need God so much whether our cares are great or small,

public or private, He cares for one and all

and in the prayer-room His peace frees us from fear's would-be shackles!

Aren't you thankful?! 

Ephesians 6:18
Pray in the Spirit at all times, with every kind of prayer and petition.

 To this end, stay alert with all perseverance 

in your prayers for all the saints.

From yonder portal of new day

Resounds Mercy’s role call

Where true believers bow to pray

No care too great or small

To lay before our gracious God

As long as life endures

We plea for grace to trust the rod

That tests what faith secures

The brunt of consequence unkind

The fear of the unknown

The snares set for the idle mind

The heart, as hard as stone

All these would fill a bitter cup

Hope would not be restored

Save for the pleas that we lift up

To pour before the Lord

Thus by God’s grace with prayer-braced might

We face what waits to be

We walk by faith and not by sight

Where God’s love sets us free

To live without fear’s binding dread

To rise above despair

To trust Him for what lies ahead

To hear our humble prayer

© Janet Martin

Castle (of a different kind)

This past weekend we visited Casa Loma in Toronto (story/history here)
 A dream-castle never completed...
Below is a teeny glimpse of but one of the many great accomplishments of once wealthy
Henry Pellatt who died penniless

After much amazement I was glad to return home to the welcome
 of a much more modest 'castle'
full of cracks and patches
and family!

The world is filled with castles unnoted by light of day

Though if one would take notice one might witness works of art

Not all towers and turrets are masterpieces of clay

The architect of love is at the mercy of the heart

The castles love constructs are made of plans oft run awry

The beauty it designs often revised or incomplete

Where images of outcomes once envisioned strew the sky

While love trips over mercy-sonnets scattered at its feet

The blueprint that love follows boasts no grand embellishment

No marble statuettes or glitz of crystal chandeliers

No domes showcasing frescoes or graven accomplishment

The sparkle of love’s castle glitters in laughter and tears

Its walls wear priceless scenes of days and years that came and went

It halls filled with familiar footsteps, not by gaping throngs

And though it may not leave its mark by some grand monument

It echoes with the lyrics of love's unrecorded songs

Love does not need the luxury of satin or brocade

Its rooms are not elaborate yet draw the longing eye

Where warm welcomes and loving arms feel almost heaven-made

The castle of contentment something money cannot buy

© Janet Martin