Beauty's Best Bounty

Imagine if we let Beauty have the profound impact on us that it ought to!

Beauty begets worship’s wonder 

spreads a feast of sheer delight 

to the pleasure of sight’s hunger 

and awe’s raging appetite 

where the commonplace is lavished 

with each season’s opulence 

and the human heart is ravished 

with Mercy’s extravagance 

where dear Lord with loving kindness 

overflows earth’s deeps and heights 

with forgiveness for the blindness 

that more oft than not ignites 

fear and doubting’s loathsome bondage 

making beggars of us all 

when we exchange worship’s homage 

for some lesser beck and call 

while the One, forever faithful 

fills the fields of earth and sky 

with Sound Reason to be grateful 

rather than grumble and sigh 

where we, shamefully forgetful 

of love’s track record of grace 

witness Beauty from a gable 

over-shadowed by God’s face 

where, pray beauty will deliver 

an eternal offering 

of true worship to the Giver 

rather than the Gifted Thing

then when we suffer the hours

not so lovely at first glance

we will look beyond crushed flowers

to the Beauty worship plants/grants 

© Janet Martin

You care for the land and water it;
    you enrich it abundantly.
The streams of God are filled with water
    to provide the people with grain,
    for so you have ordained it.[d]
10 You drench its furrows and level its ridges;
    you soften it with showers and bless its crops.
11 You crown the year with your bounty,
    and your carts overflow with abundance.
12 The grasslands of the wilderness overflow;
    the hills are clothed with gladness.
13 The meadows are covered with flocks
    and the valleys are mantled with grain;
    they shout for joy and sing.

Psalm 65:9-13

Sweet September's Bon Voyage

 

We went from sun to rain in short order this morning,

in true fall fashion!

farewell, Belle of Autumn's Beginning and Summer's End.

By the time you read this...

...it will be raining

The summer’s gleaming embers dim 

Upon the cooling hearth of earth 

The poet of September’s hymn 

Lures lyrics from the lamp-lit limb 

That tugs hearts twixt pathos and mirth 

The golden rod and aster maze 

Loses youth’s luster, dazed by frost 

While sumac sets the hills ablaze 

And mesmerizes mortal gaze 

With woodlands, orange and crimson-tossed 

The good land yields its dusty grip 

Where we had toiled beneath the sun 

And reveled in the fellowship 

Of seeds to swift fruition's slip 

Like deeds when they are bled and done 

The whisper of green fields of corn 

Becomes a rustling thoroughfare 

Where brittle minstrels fill the morn 

With autumn ambience reborn 

In climaxes beyond compare 

The orchard is a paradise 

For pickers and dreamers alike 

The apple is autumn’s First Prize 

Inducing mouth-watering sighs 

Before the unforbidden bite 

The shawl that sweet September weaves

Is full of holes, gossamer-webbed

Then patched with fall's first falling leaves

That scuttle round the feet of sheaves

Not gathered into harvest yet

September’s sad-sweet happiness 

Cannot keep summer’s door ajar 

But falls prey to the promises 

Of fall’s unbridled loveliness 

To comfort longing’s avatar 

Where Beauty broods and binds the wounds 

Left by sea-song and sun-kissed sand 

And turquoise-tinted afternoons 

That drifted like posy-pontoons 

Toward October’s Promised Land 

Farewell, farewell, September’s spark 

Is snuffed by winds that toss Time’s barge 

Filled with passengers that embark 

Upon oceans of early dark 

Beneath a Hand in perfect charge 

So, we sip hot cider and tea 

And try to keep our chins held high 

Because each season’s summery (oops, summary😉) 

Will always and forever be 

The springboard to wonder’s ‘oh my’ 

Then do not weep, but keep the quick 

Of summers yet to come intact 

Where we must all suffer the kick 

And weather the incumbent prick 

Of less friendly matters of fact 

Because we would not recognize 

Life’s Magnum Opus when it comes 

If we could always clasp The Prize 

Or indulge want’s quixotic sighs 

That breed ingratitude's rude sums 

September, loved like family 

 Disappears in fond-teared release 

Where God with kindly sympathy 

Does not slam summer’s door cruelly 

But grants October’s Masterpiece

© Janet Martin 

We celebrated End of September with Pumpkin Spice green tea!

It is Grand-daughter's first 'tea-taste'; 1/3 tea and 2/3 milk

 

I think she likes it...

In this Season of Letting Summer Go...

 

In the course of a week this tree flares and fizzles...

like a fall fire-cracker

Every good and perfect gift is from above, 

coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, 

who does not change like shifting shadows.

(I love this familiar verse; James 1:17

but the next, perhaps less familiar verse 18 offers such

sound reason for thankfulness no matter the season...

He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, 

that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

One of the blessings I'm praising God for this morning

 is that though the pick-up truck tire just went flat

Jim was driving not too far from a tire shop!

The warning light came on and 

he was able to make it to the shop in time!

I drove the truck to quite a few errands yesterday

and thankfully made it home!

Jim is much better qualified to dealing with vehicle-troubles😌

In this season of sorrow-pangs; of letting summer go 

Somehow sweet gladness still remains for hearts to overflow 

With happiness where loveliness is not a seasoned lease 

Because genuine thankfulness grants hope and joy and peace 

In this season of longing something instills sheer delight 

Where mercy metes the morning; where stars still come out at night 

Where Beauty, not sequestered in the husk where summer lies 

Pours, spills, unfolds and blesses us in glorious surprise 

Harshness of cold hard facts attacks us in the early dark 

Where courage and surrender spar within the trembling heart 

Where still, the Giver of each good and perfect gift sustains 

And bids us recognize the grant of goodness that remains 

Then we are not disheartened as the cold comes creeping in 

As frost frazzles the garden; as the wind nips cheeks and chin 

Our Father above does not change like shifting season-tide 

He abides through what time estranges with love, bona fide 

…thus, in this parting-kiss-dismissal of days dearly spent 

While we watch colour flare and fizzle in soundless descent 

While farewell’s fangs inflict the pangs of bittersweet release 

We find genuine thankfulness grants hope and joy and peace 

© Janet Martin 

On Principal Principles

The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders;
    where morning dawns, where evening fades,
    you call forth songs of joy.

Psalm 65:8

The wild flowers this fall spill in spectacular profusion!!

We sang the song Your Name in our worship service yesterday

as well as the chorus to this one

Turn your Eyes upon Jesus

 

as I reflected on the Wonder-full, Power-full name of Jesus

 something/Someone probed

at those parts I too often seek to protect with Prideful Self...

Dear Lord, forgive me. 

If our principal principles where grounded in God’s Word 

If day to day we fixed our eyes on Faith’s Prize, undeterred 

If we would put our hands toward what head and heart aspire 

When we are guiltily consumed by conscience under fire 

If we would kneel a little longer at Love’s mercy seat 

We would rise up a whole lot stronger, well-equipped to meet 

The Unknown that is waiting, ever waiting close at hand 

And we would ask for courage rather than to understand 

If we believed in Jesus, hungered for His righteousness 

Rather than riches that will never bring us happiness 

If we trusted God’s promises with no shadow of doubt 

And fixed our eyes upon The Prize we dare not die without 

If we gave all for Him who give His Uttermost for us 

If our principal principles were grounded in Jesus 

How much less we would worry and how much more we would give 

Because our faith has made us whole and taught us how to live 

If our principal principle was love rather than fear

If we would loosen our grip to let Trust commandeer

This ship of skin and bone, so prone to safe-guarding the hull

Jesus would be enough to keep our cup of wonder/worship full

© Janet Martin

 

Autumn Memento

 

Shriek-shriek of jays scores autumn’s morn 

Honk-honk of wild-geese overhead 

Stitches a ragged vee-shaped thread 

Above frost-faded fields of corn 

They tug at strings wrapped round its art 

Then bound to berths deep in the heart 

Tatters of summer start to fall 

Sparking thought’s thrall of joy and grief 

Where, written on each little leaf 

Are pieces of a madrigal 

The bud, the bloom, the swift descents 

Depicting life’s brief residence 

The wind woos woodland’s coloured crown 

Down, down the darling jewels spill 

Like children laughing, twirling till 

The hill is decked with gold-red-brown 

Each little leaf that bobs and floats 

Like goblins lobbing shawls and coats 

…and on a lake of afternoons 

That rolls across echo-washed shores 

We sense an urgent surge that pours 

Through flues to hour-shaped pontoons 

Soon beached upon Bygone’s sand-bars 

While we were trawling for sea-stars 

The jars that gleam from cellar-rooms 

Hold more than gathered garden-fare 

It seems prudent endeavors snare 

A winter-world of summer blooms 

Well worth the while of song-filled hours 

To taste the smile of long-felled flow’rs 

Around the clock four seasons spin 

While we walk the tight-rope of years 

And let our sentimental tears 

Sweeten the season we are in 

Because there is to every time 

A purpose to its rhythmed rhyme 

And thus, the poet, born to weep 

In ink, accrues the aftermath 

Of days that strew the garden path 

Into a memento to keep 

Long after we have lost the String 

That finds and winds its way to spring 

Then, even though we fondly mourn

The days and dreams that are no more

We fill heart-lockets with a score

Of mementos mutely reborn

To pause, soft as a butterfly

Upon the flower of a sigh

© Janet Martin 

Love Appraisal

 

I Love You Lord

Lord, above, how much we love Thee 

So at least our mouths proclaim 

Let it be Lord, in our duty

We do not put words to shame 

Lord above, if we so love Thee 

Why are we so self-inclined 

Why are we in such a hurry 

If love is patient and kind 

Lord above, in all want’s pining 

Let our deepest longing be 

Not some superficial mining 

But for love’s identity 

Lord above, let love unfetter 

Focus on Self’s stubborn plan 

Teach us how to love You better 

Through our love for fellowman 

Lord above, let the appraisal

Of our daily worship be

Not to gods fleeting and mortal

But wholly, humbly to Thee

© Janet Martin

World-menders

We gape at Autumn's candelabra! 

Here's to carrying our candles with like-fervour!

This broken world needs mending, more befriending of the weak 

A few more folk more willing just to turn the other cheek 

This world, so full of beauty groans with humankind’s appeal 

Rather than worship’s anthems that ought never lose their zeal 

This world so full of trouble needs the best that we can give 

In this very brief bubble of one single life we live 

As we bear pressing burdens; this is the price tag of love 

Where hearts and dreams oft broken are cupped in skin’s fragile glove 

And faith, hope’s firm foundation is considered obsolete 

As instant gratification seeks something soft and sweet 

While weeping at the woebegone condition of mankind 

Where we need reappraising of love’s state of heart and mind 

Lest the light of God’s mercy seems too feeble and too dim 

For He made us the lampstand to lift up love’s flame for Him 

Because this world needs mending, more befriending of the lost 

A few more folk more willing to love without counting cost 

To lean on God's sufficient grace rather than mortal strength

Where His love has no limit in its height, depth, breadth and length

© Janet Martin 

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, 

and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Matt.5:16

He has told you, O man, what is good;
    and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,[a]
    and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8

Wonder IS God's Signature

 

A Wonderful First Fall Saturday of 2020!

Wonder is spring’s first fair flower 

Summer fields and Autumn’s show 

Wonder is a winter morning 

Swaddled in fresh-fallen snow 

Wonder is boundless, blue welkin 

Wonder is wee bird that sings 

Wonder is a reawak’ning 

To a world of lovely things 

Wonder is dew-diamonds dazzling 

Daybreak with silver-starred blur 

Wonder is a just-hatched gosling 

Wonder is God’s signature 

Wonder is worship’s expression 

Stirred by beauty’s sundry form 

Wonder is God’s intercession 

As He takes the heart by storm 

Wonder gleams in sun-steeped stubble

Wonder whispers, roars and sings

Wonder soars above life's troubles

And restores hope's broken wings

Wonder eases disappointment

Silenced wish and whim applaud 

While we gaze in sheer amazement 

At unveiled glimpses of God

© Janet Martin

Louis Armstrong What a Wonderful World

Ps.92:1-8

It is good to praise the Lord

and make music to your name, O Most High,

2 proclaiming your love in the morning

and your faithfulness at night,

3 to the music of the ten-stringed lyre

and the melody of the harp.

4 For you make me glad by your deeds, Lord;

I sing for joy at what your hands have done.

5 How great are your works, Lord,

how profound your thoughts!

6 Senseless people do not know,

fools do not understand,

7 that though the wicked spring up like grass

and all evildoers flourish,

they will be destroyed forever.

8 But you, Lord, are forever exalted.