Wonder-joy or Joy-wonder...

This poem was sparked by the caption above the first photo from Saturday's post.

Thank God for joy's wonder in life's changeless things

like laughter and love as a child's childhood wings...

(*grandkiddos tucked in with 'great-gramma quilts'

Quilts/comforters made by my mom)

They both graduated to bigger beds and new blankets last week because

we are waiting for new sibling to arrive!!!

This poem is a thankful medley of corralled recent joys...

Thank God for joy's wonder in life's changeless things

Like love’s many splendors as Child's childhood wings

...like bedtime sunshine from radiant smiles spilt

As youngsters are tucked beneath *'great-gramma-quilts'/warm handmade quilts

For four-season favour’s tender metaphors

For sweet satisfaction from completed chores

For spring gardens not pestilence-riddled yet

For doors flung and fettered by sunrise and set

For floors freshly polished with pastures of green

For hello, farewell and love’s points in between

For each ‘what’s for supper’s’ God-granted reply

From panful to plateful to stomach-full sigh

For hugs, hearty handshakes and ‘long-time-no-sees’

That turn, in a twinkle, to fond memories

For mischievous puppies and children to scold

For babies and bouquets and bushels to hold

For tables to gather around, for a chair

High on a hilltop, with wind tousling our hair

For spring birds returning after winter spent

For blue heavens crowning earth’s dust-covenant

Of seedtime and harvest, cold, heat, night and day

For brook-song that sparkles on its merry away

For each friendly flower that brightens life’s path

Through trouble’s dark hour and its aftermath

For gratitude deepened because of a Cross

For thankfulness sweetened not by gain, but loss

For courage refurbished by kind word or smile

For laughter to lighten the weight/wait of The While

For wishes recanted that never came true

Where God’s mercy granted a wiser ‘thank-you’

For holy appointments like ‘right here, right now’

Of ‘nose to the grindstone’ and ‘hand to the plow’

For life’s simple bests that money cannot buy

…cloud-frigates a-float in an ocean of sky

Orchard-wicks rekindled with pink blossom-frill

Final flurries swindled of bluster and chill

For pleasures made possible because of ink

Like poetry-treasures and good books to drink

Like lingering over a page-stunning tableau

Mesmerized by the sheer surprise of the show

Like finding a friend when we least expect it

So, then we just sit and enjoy for a bit

Before paper-thin farewells, page-turned appease

Dictional echoes and deferred fantasies

As we turn to tangible matters of fact

Like laundry-mountains and dirty dishes stacked

Like love-letters penned by those still near and dear

We thank God for joy’s wonders right now, right here

© Janet Martin

For pleasures made possible because of ink

Like poetry-treasures and good books to drink

Like lingering over a page-stunning tableau...

For spring birds returning after winter spent...

For blue heavens crowning earth’s dust-covenant

Of seedtime and harvest, cold, heat, night and day...

Of Mother-Heartstrings...

Love bears all things, 

believes all things, 

hopes all things, 

endures all things.

Love never fails

1 Cor.13:7-8

A precious Mother's Day weekend without many photos...only echoes,

while chores, commitments and celebrations were juggled.

(Why a red cleaning pail on a sunny Sunday afternoon deck visit?!

It was filled with soapy water and thrown at the neighbor's dog after

he splashed through a 'manure-pool' then came for some affection 

after he 'helped' us round up some rambunctious cattle that had broken

out of said neighbor's barn while Farmer was away😅)

***

No matter how old or far a mother's children are

love's umbilical cord, aka heartstrings

is never severed...

As she celebrates each step of each child's independence

a mother's heartstrings are tested to new lengths

but never broken💗

In whatever season of motherhood we are

God is faithful! 

The song below seems fitting 

as we begin another week whether we are a mother

or have/had a mother...

So it begins with the first newborn cry

…the tug and tangle of mother-heartstrings

A hold-and-let-go that will never untie

Love’s weathered tethers that motherhood brings

Who knew that someone so tiny and pink

Could completely transform the world she knew

Laughter and tears sparkle, silver, I think

Highlighting places where heartstrings run through

Love is an ocean she carries inside

Wonder and worry and weariness reel

Time is a subtle, determined riptide

Dashing heartstrings, strong as cables of steel

…where she is always relearning love’s art

First steps, first school day, first road trip, first car

Hold-and-let-go, while the strings round her heart

Stretch-stretch to wherever her children are

Labour-pains last until life’s final breath

Bittersweet, happy-sad sorrow and joy

She is a warrior who’ll fight to the death

For the welfare of her dear girl and boy

This is no commonplace love that she bears

This love reflects God, faithful, kind and good

These are no common ribbons that she wears

These are the heartstrings of motherhood

God, grant her courage, strength, wisdom and grace

Bless her and keep her in Thy tender care

For in each hold-and-let-go she will face

 Nothing can sever heartstrings spun with prayer

Motherhood yields to ever-present tugs

Of duty's demands, affairs soon echo-etched

Hold-and-let-go, this is the way of hugs

But not heartstrings, as they are stretched and stretched  

© Janet Martin

Prov.31:25-28

Strength and honor are her clothing,

and she can laugh at the days to come.

She opens her mouth with wisdom,

and faithful instruction is on her tongue.

She watches over the affairs of her household

and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Her children rise up and call her blessed;

The Things That Don't Change...(never lose their wonder)

Thank God for joy's wonder in life's changeless things

like laughter and love as a child's childhood wings...

💖💖💖

Last night I dashed to a nearby farmer's field to

revel in the wonderful joy

of the heaven's declaring the glory of God!

While I ogled and ah-h-ed, the farmer who owns the field happened by with his tractor.

He hopped out to admire the view too.

Who knew that this burly, dirt-covered busy man and I shared in common

a sheer delight over nature's wonders...

that he too takes pictures every year of buds unfolding and barn swallows nesting etc.

that he thrills to the pink flood of daybreak as it rushes through his milking parlour.

We celebrated the fact that for all life's change and trouble

the things that never change, never lose their wonder💖

The things that don’t change never lose their wonder

The Hand that wrings Spring’s shower-bowers brings

Beauty to feed the soul’s ravenous hunger

A world unfurled with green and petaled things

Where the swallow swoops and the woodland rings

Heavens on fire with dawn and dusk glory

Tugging our gaze from earth’s cares for a bit

As if Someone bigger is writing love’s story

Where we are honored to be part of it

In spite of tests to Quest’s valor and grit

Wonder is the gem in life’s crown of troubles

Thrill of the hill decked with daffodil-frills

Joy of a child chasing rainbow-gilt bubbles

Wealth of the bud as its treasure-trove spills

Over the edges of hedges and rills

Brook-laughter luring bare feet to its shimmer

Green is the valley and blue is the sky

Spread like a banquet-blanket heaped with dinner

Food for the spirit and feast for the eye

Tugging at tethers hinged to hearts, oh my

Mint tints in treetops long stripped of leaf-luster

First maple-plume is a daisy bouquet

Lark singing with all the might it can muster

While the dark arc of night turns to today

Stars fall, violet-strewn like noon’s Milky Way

Seeds fuel furrows, faith-jewels soft falling

Where sallow fallow will soon brim with hymns

Where Nature is like a kind mother calling

Where blithe breeze somersaults, where cobalt whims

Hum and strum yellow willow-cello limbs

The things that don’t change never lose their wonder

The Hand that authors them will never fail

To birth the beauty that feeds the soul’s hunger

Heaven and earth like a glorious grail

Tipped to wow us with creation’s regale

© Janet Martin

Wonder is the gem in life’s crown of troubles

Thrill of the hill decked with daffodil-frills

Joy of a child chasing rainbow-gilt bubbles...

Wealth of the bud as its treasure-trove spills

Over the edges of hedges and rills...

Psalm 136:1-9

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.
2Oh, give thanks to the God of gods!
For His mercy endures forever.
3Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords!
For His mercy endures forever:
4To Him who alone does great wonders,
For His mercy endures forever;
5To Him who by wisdom made the heavens,
For His mercy endures forever;
6To Him who laid out the earth above the waters,
For His mercy endures forever;
7To Him who made great lights,
For His mercy endures forever—
8The sun to rule by day,
For His mercy endures forever;
9The moon and stars to rule by night,
For His mercy endures forever...

click here to read the whole glorious chapter!

Exodus 15:11
Who among the gods is like You, O LORD? 

Who is like You--majestic in holiness, 

revered with praises, 

performing wonders?

Psalm 40:5
Many, O LORD my God,

 are the wonders You have done,

 and the plans You have for us--

none can compare to You--

if I proclaim and declare them, 

they are more than I can count.

Of Ephemeral and Eternal...

This passage is part of what inspired today's poem...

as well as praying for those who are enduring terrible suffering

whether close to home or across the ocean... 

It the same God to whom all the heavens and earth belong

 who 'sets His affections' on us...

Deut.10:12-21 BSB

And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you

 but to fear the LORD your God

 by walking in all His ways, to love Him,

 to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

  13and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD

 that I am giving you this day for your own good?

14Behold, to the LORD your God belong the heavens,

 even the highest heavens,

 and the earth and everything in it.

  15Yet the LORD has set His affection on your fathers and loved them. 

And He has chosen you, their descendants after them,

 above all the peoples, even to this day.

16Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and stiffen your necks no more.

  17For the LORD your God is God of gods 

and Lord of lords, 

the great, mighty, and awesome God, 

showing no partiality and accepting no bribe.

  18He executes justice for the fatherless and widow, 

and He loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing.

  19So you also must love the foreigner, 

since you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

20You are to fear the LORD your God and serve Him. 

Hold fast to Him and take your oaths in His name.

  21He is your praise and He is your God, 

who has done for you these great and awesome wonders 

that your eyes have seen.

Here's to a weekend of counting God's

'great and awesome wonders'!

Time’s carousel of seasons twirls until our final breath...

Finally, spring is untwirling daffodils!

Sometimes life’s clime of dust-to-dust loses its luster, oh,

Where we wage wars of love and lust on shores of want and woe

Where rivalry of faith and fear tests how we heed life’s call

‘To love, serve, honor and revere our Lord God above all’

Time’s carousel of seasons twirls until our final breath

When everlasting due unfurls a world immune to death

Where no one can undo the gates that no appeal can budge

Where endless joy or sorrow waits where God alone is Judge

The threshing floor where grain from chaff has not been winnowed yet

Drenched with redemption’s autograph and blossom pirouette

Is mortal’s pilgrimage of dust, though lusterless sometimes

Its suffering is but the must that every Soul-dier climbs

…to the unveiling of the recompense of The Reward

Where we will reap the consequence eternally outpoured

Where the Staircase of Now and Here resonates with the call

‘To love, serve, honor and revere our Lord God above all’

Earth thunders as the great and awesome wonders of God brim

No other power can create but what belongs to Him

Where our eyes have seen the hemline of His majesty

As lusterless landscapes turn green where winter used to be 

© Janet Martin

Our God, Our Help in Ages Past

Daybreak Devotion

We know beneath spring’s barren tress its wing is flower-lined...

When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, He said in His heart, 

“Never again will I curse the ground because of man, 

even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. 

And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done. 

22As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest,

cold and heat, summer and winter,

day and night shall never cease.”

Gen.8:21-22

Jeremiah 31:34-36

No longer will each man teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’

because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD.

For I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more.”

35Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day,

who sets in order the moon and stars for light by night,

who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—

the LORD of Hosts is His name:

36“Only if this fixed order departed from My presence, declares the LORD,

would Israel’s descendants ever cease to be a nation before Me.”…

*On this National Day of Prayer

it seemed fitting to kneel at the window this morning as the sun came up, to pray.

And as I thought of Daniel of old this poem started to find its wings...

(We pray to the same God that Daniel did; the God who stoppered the mouths of lions!)

The break of day, like golden surf dissolves nebulous hues

A flare above the olden earth lights ancient avenues

Mercy unfurls before our gaze God’s ancient covenant

Of seedtime, harvest, night and day’s manifest sacrament

Then praise the One who does not fail, who demonstrates His love

In heights and depths no thought can scale or dredge the deeps thereof

God keeps his promises, He does not lie or change His mind

We know beneath spring’s barren tress its wing is flower-lined

And though we cannot see Him yet, His evidence confounds

God, forgive us when we forget and fret where grace abounds

Convict us of the sin that mars our fellowship with You

Impress upon our hearts the scars faith runs prayer's whispers through

© Janet Martin

Daniel 6:10

Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, 

he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. 

Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, 

giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.

*From Franklin Graham this morning...(and needful for Canada too!)

Taking a stand for our country begins by going to our knees in prayer before Almighty God.

Today is the #NationalDayofPrayer, and for the past 71 years,

Christians across our country have gathered on this day to ask God for His help.

Our country is in trouble—we’re in a free fall, morally and spiritually.

We need to pray for our families, schools, churches, law enforcement,

military, judges, and our political leadership in Washington.(/Ottawa)

I hope you’ll join me in asking God to intervene and turn the heart of this nation back to Him.

We also need to pray for world leaders, and for an end to the deadly conflict in Ukraine.

The Word of God promises

“the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer”

(1 Peter 3:12).

My father Billy Graham once said, “A prayerless Christian is a powerless Christian.”

He also called prayer “the Christian’s greatest weapon.” I couldn’t agree more.

The most important thing we can do is come to God and ask Him for help and direction.

He’s the only hope for this world, and that’s why I pray

in the mighty Name of Jesus Christ on this National Day of Prayer.

“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace,

that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need”

(Hebrews 4:16).

Of Side and Ripple Effects (of sin)

Mark 14:38

Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.

The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Phil.2:12-13

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed,

not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence,

work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;

13for it is God who works in you

both to will and to do for His good pleasure./purpose

Sometimes I am stunned breathless

at the awesome responsibility 

resting on the shoulders of we who are

training the next generation...

As a parent, grandparent, 

as a child caregiver,

or teacher,

or Sunday School teacher.

Youngsters so beautiful,

 so precious,

 so smart, 

and so innocent

are trusting us!

May God give us grace and truth!

This past Sunday our lesson was about Samson, teaching us that

Samson is just one of many people in

the Bible who failed to obey God perfectly.

 But God still uses sinners in His plan

 to share His love with the world. 

Jesus forgives our sin. 

We can be part of God’s story to share the good

news of Jesus with others.

As we chatted about the story I told them I am glad when I sin

God forgives me and can still use me for his purpose and glory...

Before I had quite completed the sentence one little girl gasped

in horror, 'What?! she said, 'you are glad when you sin?!!"

So, I made sure they all heard the rest of the sentence.

Imagine the confusion if a class of little girls when asked what they learned

would report that the teacher said she is glad when she sins...lol!

So to clarify...I am sad when I sin but it really got me to thinking about whether

I am sad enough and quite as on guard as I should be.

Am I a teacher of truth or half-truths?

Sometimes I am agonizingly awed

by the craftiness of sin.

Always, always I need God's love/Word to show me the way.

Always, always I need his grace to forgive me and whisper 

"ups-a-daisy, dear. Try, try again,

for I will never leave you or forsake you"

This poem is a bit of battleground thought-blood...

The side and the ripple effects of disregarded sin

Seeps like a deadly venom, vile, and veiled by guile’s smooth skin

For, though we repent and receive redemption’s gift of grace

We do not instantly achieve the triumph of life’s race

But only then begin the fight that Satan delights in

To blemish the believer’s light with cunning ploys of sin

Alliances of evil would be too awful to bear

Temptation’s vexing vices oft would drive us to despair

Without the faithfulness of God whose armor will not fail

If we cling to His staff and rod, His pleasure/purpose will prevail

Then praise Him for the battle lest we slip to apathy

And wink because we think we have conquered the enemy

If we confess our sin, God, rich in mercy will forgive

The fight that we are in continues as long as we live

For Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light

The master of deception clothes dark evil in pure white

The father of lies plays the charmer while his army lurks

To find chinks in faith’s armor and further destruction’s works

Diligence and enticement spar on battlegrounds within

Because God’s precious people are prized prey for schemes of sin

We ought to give most earnest heed to warnings we have heard

And with hunger for righteousness feed on God’s Holy Word

Because side and ripple effects of pride and selfishness

Can set a snare that twists the truth into ungodliness

Sometimes the stumbling blocks of sin may seem harmless and small

Until life’s testing storms begin, how mighty then, the fall

Where sin’s side and ripple effects employ a subtle tone

To soothe away the sacred void of The Chief Cornerstone

Until the side and ripple effects of sin cuts the cord

To holiest awareness of reckoning and reward

© Janet Martin

Songs like this cheer me on...

I hope they do you as well!

How Can I Keep From Singing- Audrey Assad

May Morning Melody

Psalm 62:5-8

Yes, my soul, find rest in God;

my hope comes from him.

6 Truly he is my rock and my salvation;

he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.

7 My salvation and my honor depend on God[c];

he is my mighty rock, my refuge.

8 Trust in him at all times, you people;

pour out your hearts to him,

for God is our refuge.

Earth's table trembles 

with glimmers

of May's magical 

bloom-buffet...

With love’s mercies kindly given

And love’s mercies still to come

Pray we may be humbly driven

To He who our help/hope is from

We will never be forsaken

By the One who grants life’s worth

By He whose pure whispers waken

Nature’s plumes to clothe the earth

While time’s bubble full of trouble

Groans with mortal’s menial woe

Midst its mayhem and its rubble

By the grace of God we go

By the grace that authors flowers

By the grace that hears our plea

What a wondrous grace is ours

Grace that sets death’s captive free

In spite of calloused rejection

And the naïve wants we prize

Grace bends earth with birth’s redemption

And the darkness with sunrise

Threads the loom of breathless bowers

With summer’s glad symphonies

Hark! The limb grace strummed with showers

Bursts into a hymn of leaves

Bursts into a newborn garden

Bursts into first green and gold

Bursts into the perfect pardon

Of spring after winter’s cold

With such mercies kindly given

And such mercies still to come

Pray we may be humbly driven

To He who our help/hope is from

© Janet Martin

Psalm 121:1-2

...where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord,

the Maker of heaven and earth.

How Do I Love Thee, (Once upon Sweet Childhood's Girl or Boy)

(a rather sentimental undoing of a mother's heart

as she contemplates a mother's love for grown children 💝)

Birthdays have a way of doing that...

Happy 24th birthday, Matt!

How do I love thee, once upon sweet childhood’s girl or boy?

I love thee with a brutal grief and with a daring joy

I love thee like a gentle lamb yet with a lion’s roar

It seems like every day I love you like never before

How do I love thee? In a tender tumult borne within

My dear, you cannot guess the world unfurled beneath my skin

Or how a mother holds her babies close in spite of years

How love is like a medley of hugs, tugs, cheers, fears and tears

How do I love thee? With compassion’s firm and fierce regard

Because I know though love is sweet, love is grueling and hard

A holy weathering that cannot be estranged by miles

A prayer-worn tethering through sorrow-storms and sunshine-smiles

How do I love thee? like a dancer still learning the steps

A hold and letting go that Season-change cannot eclipse

With sympathy and hope and honor all rolled into one

I love thee like only a mother loves daughter or son

How do I love thee? with oft stumble-humbled gratitude

With by-the-grace-of-God whose kindness keeps courage renewed

With error-riddled aftermath and laughter’s grand release

With awe, while God is teaching me what makes a masterpiece 

From mom aka

© Janet Martin

Psalm 90:12

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.