Songs of May and Morn

It was a weekend of celebrating...

 Grandson's 1st birthday,

 

mothers/motherhood,

and May/gardening...

(helping grandpa plant potatoes)

Grand-sonny preferred planting potatoes to the tedium of planting peas...

When I handed him a little pail of pea seeds he proceeded to pour them into the

furrow rather than place them one by one,

 until gramma showed them how to space the seeds😅

I can't wait for them to begin witnessing the miracle from seed to fruit!

On this note, off we go on a new week rife with life's wonders and woes!

An orchestra of colour plays a melody reborn

To set both earth and heart ablaze with songs of May and morn

The author of all things ignites from minstrels great and small

A hymn of gladness, and invites us to join, one and all

To praise He who is faithful, absolute and wonderful

And eternally able to do the impossible

A symphony of splendor spills from He who does no wrong

It rolls across valleys and hills like a redemption song

To clothe the field with flowers and the tree with leafy sheen

To transform barren bowers with a thousand shades of green

And to remind the creature, awed at what God's love restores

To trust creation’s Teacher who sustains hope’s reservoirs

An invitation steals the show with holy thundering

A celebration peals ‘hello’ and beckons us to sing

In spite of cares we shoulder and the sorrows of this world

God cheers the awed beholder with His handiwork unfurled

And wakes a purer, meeker praise as melodies reborn

Once more set earth and hearts ablaze with songs of May and morn

© Janet Martin

Sometimes my morning worship/prayer/quiet time 

seems like a bittersweet duel between

groaning grief for what feels like 'impossible' prayers

and dumbfounded joy for His awesome Word and handiwork.

...a duel between sorrowful recognition/reconciliation 

of suffering the consequence of a sinful action

and awe for God's abiding faithfulness, kindness, forgiveness, love and grace

***

Isa.26:3

You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.

A few recent devotions from My Utmost for His Highest

We Cannot Make Love

Today I am making garden-planting plans!

Other things made this week?

Order from chaos!

Birthday cake and dinner memories...

...and of course, coffee!!😊

We are always making, aren't we?!!

Making plans, meals, order, things, memories, 

coffee...

But, we cannot make love...

And say, 'see, here it is', to set in front of someone

like a trophy to display upon a shelf

We cannot make it like a Thing and say,

'This is a Love'

So, where does love come from;

This 'Thing' everyone needs and can

never get too much of...?

Where is this Fount 

from whence all Goodness flows?

This 'Thing' that never fails,

Only the lack of it...

We cannot make love

Can’t bake it like a cake

Can’t steep it like a cup of tea

To soothe a bellyache

Can’t mold it out of clay

Can't forge it out of steel

To build a bridge to span the gap

Twixt heart-to-heart appeal

Can't cut it from a page

Or order it online

Can't woo it from whispering leaves

Or pluck it from a vine

Or buy it from a shop

Or shake it from a bough

Like red apples in autumn-time

Can't milk it from a cow

Or hatch it from an egg

Or catch it like a fish

Or carve it out of balsam wood

Or mix it in a dish

Or pull it from a box

Or paint it, like fine art

Or compose it with pen and ink

To lure/coax it from a heart

Can't wish it from a star

Or press it from a grape

Or force it from bud into bloom 

Can't knit it like a cape

Or weave it like a mat

Can't earn it by hard toil

Or pour and smooth it like concrete 

Or dig it from the soil

Ah, where can we find love?

High on a dusty shelf?

Or, do we start to find it when

We stop living for Self

Love is life's greatest joy

Love is life's greatest grief

Love is the evidence of God

That triumphs unbelief 

No, we cannot make love

The way we make a pie

Love is the heart/part of God in us

That only fools deny

Nobody has seen God

Only His majesty

Made manifest among us through

The likes of you and me 

Love; oft misunderstood

Love, ink of poet's laud 

The Great Equalizer of boast

Because love is from God

Janet Martin

1 John 4:7-12

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, 

and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 

8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 

9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, 

that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 

10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us 

and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 

12 No one has ever seen God; 

if we love one another, 

God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

A Very Serious Question or When You See a Pansy Smiling...

 

When you see a pansy smiling

As if this life knew no lack...

When you see a pansy smiling...

Tell me, dear

Do you smile back?

Janet😊💖

This Little Flicker of a Tree

 

Sometimes dread tries to drive a wedge between joy and hope’s promises

Sometimes it tries to trump the pledge of mercy’s renewed faithfulness

Or darken the doorway of dawn with doubt and fear for the unknown

Until I hear the voice of One who whispers ‘You are not alone’

Sometimes the weight of creature care could rob me of would-be delight

Love’s load in constant need of prayer, life’s road a walk by faith, not sight

Sometimes the winds and waves of love could defeat courage thoroughly

Until I am reminded of ‘no longer I, but Christ in me’

Sometimes a formless enemy hisses and kindles vain debate

This liar tries to threaten me with Logic while God whispers ‘wait’

Where sometimes discouragement bends this little flicker of a tree

Until I cry to God who sends angels to minister to me

© Janet Martin

Jer.17:5-8

This is what the Lord says:

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,

who draws strength from mere flesh

and whose heart turns away from the Lord.

6 That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;

they will not see prosperity when it comes.

They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,

in a salt land where no one lives.

7 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,

whose confidence is in him.

8 They will be like a tree planted by the water

that sends out its roots by the stream.

It does not fear when heat comes;

its leaves are always green.

It has no worries in a year of drought

and never fails to bear fruit.”

This cross in the sky felt like a tangible whisper this morning!!

Psalm 147:1

Praise[a] the Lord!

For it is good to sing praises to our God;

For it is pleasant, and praise is beautiful.

God's Precious Promises- Dr. Charles Stanley

Of Love's Impending Choices

After a stretch of rain last week

every farmer and gardener is paying close attention

to the condition of the soil with common quest;

"is it dry enough to till and plant?!"

And then we will not heedlessly toss seeds here and there

hoping for the best. 

Planting is done with careful heed,

the eye on its harvest!

Imagine if we kept our eyes on the soil of the soul

and planted with careful precision/decision

with our eyes on the harvest!

Across shorelines of morning mercy’s renewed breakers roll...

Across shorelines of morning mercy’s renewed breakers roll

Where wonderment and warning reanoint cause and effect

Of love’s impending choices soon strewn beneath high noon’s toll

Ere Dusk collects the voices that will waft in retrospect

This is no fickle bower that bends with dawn’s blushing ‘yet’

Today’s brief leaf and flower, metes far more than meets the eye

Where though time never lingers, its swift moment-presses set

What slips through lips and fingers into permanent reply

How sacred is the summons that draws us from slumber’s woo

Where this we share in common; we will reap the seeds we sow

This should give us good reason to pay close attention to

What follows planting season and what soon Harvest will show

Dusk holds far more than lullabies beneath its beckoning 

Morn metes far more than beaming skies beneath its gleaming burst

Where love's impending choices wait to author reckoning

Where soon the Harvest voices what was moment-sized at first

© Janet Martin

Gal.6:7

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; 

for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

There is never an isolated action.

For better or worse

Action yields consequence

Some 'consequences are pure joy

such as...cake!

from this...

to this...

 to this...

to this!

...in almost no time at all!

Now's Love Song or Masterpiece in the Making

Wherever we are at in life, what ever part of the song,

may we learn to trust the Maestro

till the Masterpiece is complete...

My music sheet is a bit messy and paint-splattered  these days...

...hoping to get it a bit more organized today

before a belated birthday supper for Matt tonight!

(finishing this post while waiting for the cocoa-mixture to cool before

I can finish mixing the cake)

Matt's fav; Cocoa Chiffon Cake

This poem niggled beneath my ribs

from drifts of music from noisier

days gone by...

It seeps through heart-shaped holes, through walls weathered and whisper thin

A little like a gong that tolls when dusk is closing in

It gathers missing faces from Bygone’s lost places near

A love song of awareness to embrace the now and here

This is the life. Unfolding not upon yon fairer clime

That morrow is withholding; now is all we have of time

To touch and taste, to hug and kiss, to revel in the thrill

Of a love song we dare not miss as its melodies spill

...while penning lyrics to a tune not fully composed yet

A crescendo of crescent moon, a petal pirouette

A rush of sound and color, a rippling arpeggio

A test of will and valor as we hold, but to let go

A smile-tear-prayer glistened yes-no, a courage-christened leap

Now high, now low, now fast, now slow Now's ballads lilt and weep

To seep through heart-shaped holes, through walls weathered and wonder-worn

Where every gifted half-note tolls with love songs being born

© Janet Martin

Eph.5:15-20

See then that ye walk circumspectly, 

not as fools, but as wise,

16 Redeeming the time, 

because the days are evil.

17 Wherefore be ye not unwise, 

but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; 

but be filled with the Spirit;

19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms 

and hymns 

and spiritual songs, 

singing 

and making melody

 in your heart to the Lord;

20 Giving thanks always for all things 

unto God and the Father 

in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

Wind-song of Hope

It rings in nature’s thoroughfare

It sings in dawn’s hurrah...

It steals into each dewdrop kiss...

It flickers on the woodland wick

Aura of imminence

Ignites the budded candlestick

In mossy ambience...

It rings in nature’s thoroughfare

It sings in dawn’s hurrah

And rouses in the heart a prayer

Of never-ending awe

It flickers on the woodland wick

Aura of imminence

Ignites the budded candlestick

In moss-green ambience

It steals into each dewdrop kiss

It heals the broken dream

And to a world with much amiss

Florets unfettered stream

It lilts in warbling rondelay

It bursts with fresh belief

It waves winter’s chill wind away

With silky handkerchief

It refuels the poet’s pen

Benison of blue sky

Crowns worship’s refurbished amen

With wonder’s my-oh-my

Nothing compares to its cajole

This rival of defeat

Revives, restores, renews the soul

With anthems, warm and sweet

It tickles even stiffest lips

With hint of giddy grin

And kindles kind companionship

To all who let it in

It brings a bounce to farmer’s gait

Eye on yon graying slope

And satisfies war-sighs of ‘wait’

With Spring’s Wind-song of Hope

© Janet Martin

After a frigid, rainy week we are welcoming 

a warmer, sunny start to a new week!

Job 37:21-24

Now no one can look at the sun,

bright as it is in the skies

after the wind has swept them clean.

22 Out of the north he comes in golden splendor;

God comes in awesome majesty.

23 The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power;

in his justice and great righteousness, he does not oppress.

24 Therefore, people revere him,

for does he not have regard for all the wise in heart?[b]”

Simply Profound

Happiest of Weekend to you

as you/we rediscover and explore 

the eternal wonder of 

Love,

making worthwhile 

every mile

every smile, 

every tear, 

every task

And stunning us 

with so much more

Than we could think of ask

-ing for...

This not-so-secret ingredient

makes mundane 'musts' an honor to perform

Suddenly because of love

joy takes the heart by storm

as wonder wakens worship

and worship begins to brim

turning the very common chore

to hallelujah-hymn 

Today's chores include potluck prep for

tomorrow's lunch...

It makes the sacred difference

In everything we face

The action and the consequence

Humbled and honed by grace

It heaps the heart with thankfulness

And softens Want’s reply

With a replenished happiness

That money cannot buy

It sweetens would-be commonplace

And purifies intent

And tunes the motive in life’s race

With awe and compliment

It is simple, yet so profound

Cheering pauper and king

It turns time into holy ground

And sweetens suffering

...because its joy runs rife with pain

Yet none can get enough

Of what none can fully explain

The greatest of these; love

© Janet Martin

Love equips/compels us to willingly walk

where without it, we would not

1 Cor.13:13

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; 

but the greatest of these is love.

2 Cor.5:14-15

For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: 

that if One died for all, then all died; 

15and He died for all, that those who live 

should live no longer for themselves,

 but for Him who died for them and rose again.