Happy Spring Greeting

Happy First Day of Spring!

Gramma finally relented a few days ago

(because we were only a few sleeps away from the date circled on the calendar)

when granddaughter was promised she could finally use 'her favorite teapot')

We garnished our mint-leaf tea with dried marigold and recalled the day we harvested them

while dreaming of delightful garden days to come...

The sun tangles in tresses, still barren, where spring’s debut

Caresses sod and soul with notes of an emerging tune...

The sun tangles in tresses, still barren, where spring’s debut

Caresses sod and soul with notes of an emerging tune

Hope and delight ignite ballads of blossoms coming true

Contentment like a butterfly breaks from winter’s cocoon

And joy peals from a belfry that we sense but cannot see

As Nature keeps God’s promises of what will always be

The breezes tease us with visions of verdant countryside

Hillsides and brook banks beckon us to linger on earth’s loom

To revel in impressions of a trove of gates flung wide

As buds begin to breathe and bulging bulbs burst into bloom

And robins sing a song of spring and Reason dares to dance

As gladness finds fresh anchors in life’s sea of circumstance

The snow recedes like ebbing tides from winter-weary shores

Dawn is an eager child dashing across time’s gleaming sands

Dreams tiptoe, careful not to arouse Old Man Winter's snores

We, well aware of streets soon winnowed by time’s gleaning hands

Grapple once more with tug of wars, beauty and duty spun

On how to make the most of moments melting in the sun

© Janet Martin

For, lo, the winter is past,

The rain is over and gone;

The flowers appear on the earth;

The time of the singing of birds is come,

And the voice of the turtle

Is heard in our land;

The fig tree putteth forth her green figs,

And the vines with the tender grape

Give a good smell

.

Song of Solomon 2:11-13

Law/Awe of Love

There is nothing glamorous or sensational 

when it comes to humble, faithful obedience.

Look at the cross!!

No wild applause praises the Living Sacrifice.

Often it is not beautiful to behold!

Yet, only careful, diligent obedience to His commands 

makes manifest our declarations of love for God

Today as in the days of Moses, the condition of 

God's blessing remains the same...

James 1:25

But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it,

 and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, 

this one will be blessed in what he does.

How can His Word be in our mouths and hearts? 

By familiarizing ourselves with it/Him.

How do we do that? Only one way.

By spending time in his Word/with God.

then what happens?

More love for Him.

An awe-struck love

 yielding a willing, humble obedience!

for we serve best/most what/who we love best/most

How often I/we fail!!

but oh, pray failure will not drive us to despair

but rather to repentant prayer, to confess our sins

to He who is faithful and just to forgive them 

and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9

...and then, re-impacted with awe for God's grace, on we go,

not in lawless living but in the law of liberty/love!

Re-impact us with awe

Impress upon our hearts

The wonder of the law of love

That serving You imparts

Renew our minds, oh Lord

So, we may test and prove

The righteousness that will confess

The perfect law of Love

The law that binds love's wounds

The law of liberty 

The law that stands on the commands

Of old eternally 

Delight us with your Word

And thus, complete our joy

With the increase of hope and peace

That nothing can destroy

With heart and soul and mind

Let love’s agenda be

Diligence in obedience

With glad humility

Re-impact us with awe

For love’s redeeming vow

And the reward we press toward

When at Thy feet we bow

…when at Thy feet we bow

By utter awe undone

The mysteries of Your grace and love

Unveiled around Thy throne

© Janet Martin

Romans 2:13
For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God,

 but it is the doers of the law who will be declared righteous.

Romans 8:2
For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life 

set you free from the law of sin and death.

The chaos, confusion, and curse of disobedience

(lack of reverence and love for God) 

speaks for itself

💔🙏😢

More Love to Thee

Sneak-peek at Spring Things

 Four more sleeps till the first day of spring!!

Soon earth will burst with garden rooms

Forsythia and dogwood plumes

Tulips and daffodils will stroll

Like little girls across the knoll

And heaven will tip welkin jars

To dapple dells with violet stars

And orchard thoroughfares will tease

Noses with heady blossom breeze

And honey bees will buzz and hum

From lilac to geranium

And rose buds will spill miracles

And trees will hoist lace parasols

And woodland citadels will ring

With feathered throngs that sing and sing

And brooks will tumble out to the sea

With a refurbished melody

And raindrop tap dancers will waltz

And puppies will turn somersaults

...and puddles will be full of feet

Where almost-heaven and earth meet

And housewives will fling windows wide

To welcome the outdoors inside

And farmers will stoke dusty slopes

While planting seed-sized prayers and hopes

And children, like colored balloons

Will swing away warm afternoons

And laundry lines will be a string 

Of motley banners, fluttering

And the air will kindle a grin

That starts somewhere beneath our skin 

And life will be sweeter because

Spring fills the world where winter was

© Janet Martin

Poet's Tea

 

You may feast

on information

Theory,

theology

scientific explanation

hypothesis,

philosophy

I prefer

to sup on sips

Of ink

teased into

poetry

I prefer

the art

Of heart-shaped

Hopes

and Nope’s sting

reconciled

By possibility

Still waiting,

for ink-oceans

to run

wild

© Janet Martin

Age-old New

 this poem was inspired in part by 'the age-old New' aka morning

New day like a sky wide duvet of blush and blue and gold, unfolds

Above earth’s trench-and-trove tableau bursting with what the future holds

The loom that weaves lifetimes resumes its subtle dismantling of youth

Doubt and deception’s clout still the bold, uncouth archrivals of truth

Desire and duty aspire, conspire, compose reply

While pardon cradles gardens and gutters and stutters of oh-my

...either to He who orchestrates the sky-wide Gates of day and night

Or to lesser gods, frauds with an insatiable appetite

Once more the day the Lord has made is laden with bitter and sweet

Morn’s mantle soon trampled and torn by the plunder of hands and feet

Soft as a featherdown duvet wafting aloft, dawn’s first burst fades

Into the noise of grief and joy’s brief and boisterous escapades

Time’s climes, where nursery rhymes, sun-bonnets, sonnets, hymns and scars accrue

Unfold landscapes where echoes traipse while wonder gapes at age-old New

© Janet Martin

It was also inspired by a new, old nursery-rhyme book...

...because this grandmother just can't seem to resist 

Mother Goose and her silly, sweet, and sometimes

slightly shocking entourage!  😅💛

And after all, isn't Mother Goose like Winnie the Pooh?

For children of all ages??

(the artists all seem to have their personal gift/style of whimsy)

World-full-o'

The pleasure of the win...

The swirl and twirl with youth...

The sparkle of the child

The wizened crown of years...

The silence more pronounced

In woodland's leafless tolls

The pleasure of the win

 The sting of defeat's blow

The sense of springtime waltzing in

On a world full of snow

The swirl and twirl with youth

That ruthless hands estrange

The resolute bulwark of truth

In a world full of change

The sparkle of a child

The wizened crown of years

The laughter when sheer joy runs wild

In a world full of tears

Love's proof by how we live

Where so much is at stake

The kind and tender touch of 'give'

In a world full of  'take'

The secret second mile

The mother's earnest prayer 

The sunshine of a simple smile

In a world full of care

The season swiftly spent

The scarred, prayer-pounded Gate

Hearts, hounded with longing’s lament

In a world full of ‘wait’

The silence more pronounced

In woodland’s leafless tolls

Or where death steps in unannounced

In a world full of souls

The ‘nope’ of dreamer’s/pray-er's rue

The ‘dead seed’ in the sod

The hope that nothing can undo

In a world full of God

© Janet Martin

Very truly I tell you, 

unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, 

it remains only a single seed. 

But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

 John 12:24

The Terminal Temporal

Rom.3:23

For the wages of sin is death, 

but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Rom.6:1

What shall we say then? 

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

  2Certainly not! 

How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

A solemn tone to today's train of think-ink...

It is impossible to repent and continue living in sin!

As humans we all sin, yes, 

but that is not the same as living in sin.

 For every tree is known by its own fruit...

Luke 6:44

Jesus didn't die to save us so we could continue living in sin.

Jesus came to earth to die and rise again,

 to save us from our sins

Truth is not altered by our denial of its facts;

Truth IS!

Truth is its own Absolute! Hallelujah!

(That's what makes Him/it trustworthy)

Today's solemn splendor spilled 

in a temporary tracery of white!

Today in solemn splendor spills from He, worthy of all our praise

This is no flippant grant He wills to fulfill mortal’s numbered days

Sovereign God lends the lease that bends with choice wedded with consequence

The bedrock of His Truth transcends time’s brief exploits of Preference

As through The Temporal we pass like lightning in an hourglass

Today, in gracious grandeur gleams like a pendent of hope and grace

With faithful fervor Mercy streams from Holy God to human race

Battlegrounds of hunger and thirst weather war-cries of pride and lust

While the deathless soul is immersed in apparel of dust-to-dust

And Temporal we behold will soon melt like mist upon a hill

Today, in precious promise pours from a Presence that is not moved

Though, by and large the world ignores Him; this by bold disregard proved

Where His Word is not hidden in the heart so that we do not err

Where conscience is not stricken by sin that entered in unaware

While The Temporal lulls asleep those who no earnest vigil keep

Today, in kind compassion brims from He who, oft misunderstood

Abides, worthy of worship’s hymns for He is trustworthy and good

And never makes mistakes; He takes the broken pieces we release

And from repentance He reshapes dashed shards into a masterpiece

And tunes us to the Temporal, that, tick by tock unveils the Whole

Today in solemn splendor spills and refills smorgasbords with Choice

A free-for-all that soon reveals whether we heed that Still, Small Voice 

This is no flippant grant God wills to the Soul's temporary cape

It is a gift; a gift that drills us with temptation and Escape

Before the Temporal gives way to never-ending night or day 

© Janet Martin

2 Cor.4:18

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen,

 since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

“But of that day and hour no one knows,

 not even the angels in heaven,

 nor the Son, but only the Father. 

 Take heed, watch and pray; 

for you do not know when the time is. 

 It is like a man going to a far country, 

who left his house and gave authority

 to his servants, and to each his work, 

and commanded the doorkeeper to watch. 

 Watch therefore, for you do not know 

when the master of the house is coming—

in the evening, 

at midnight, 

at the crowing of the rooster, 

or in the morning— 

 lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. 

 And what I say to you, I say to all: 

Watch!”

Mark 13:32-37

The Perfect Why

Every single who-what-where-when-how

is subject to the Same, sacred, universal Why?

Wishing you a glorious weekend of awareness

of the Perfect Why

In all the ‘doing’ that we do

And all the blessings we applaud

And all the wonders that we view

That rouse ‘wows’ most emphatic nod

In all the triumphs that we toast

And all the offerings we bring

And all the bounty that we boast

And all the praises that we sing

And all accomplishments that thrill

And all pursuits still on the go 

And all the ledgers that we fill

To document their status quo

In all our suffering and pain

In all the valleys, dark and deep

And all the prayers that seem in vain

No matter how we plead and weep

In all the honors that we hail

And all the goodness-es we laud

In all our best efforts, we fail

Till we give all glory to God

© Janet Martin

1 Cor.10:31

Therefore, whether you eat or drink,

 or whatever you do,

 do all to the glory of God.