Gethsemane

*

Anguished soul
bent low
and bare
with the crushing weight of
The End

my view of Beginning
(or anything Beyond)
obscured by this cross
which is,
of course,
a door,
as crosses always are

but now,
for now,
tears turn myopic
all vision of morning

and with You

I weep

in Gethsemane

^*

The Occasion.....

 

 

***

 

They do Still happen

And if you're Looking Up

you see

Do-overs

and

Double rainbows...

Broken seeds 

 

become saplings

the Stuff of beginnings

And the Someday that seemed so faraway

Suddenly becomes

 

Today

Redemption

and

Re-Creation

 

Another step,

Another night

defers to

First Light

Zoom out wide enough

to hold the Song

to hold the Day

and Rise

 

to The Occasion...

 

***



Letting Go II

"Death is swallowed up in Victory"

-1 Corinthians 15:54

 

~*~

More of a pirouette than a plummet

this Letting Go

 

It can be Gentle

 

and

 

Beautiful

 

With a Soft Landing

and a Laying to Rest

 

From this vantage point

("Looking Up"

instead of
Dreading Down)

 

I See the Sun above

Feel Your Arms below

Trust the Tenacity of Life

and the Wisdom
of Beginnings...

 

~*~

 

"Oh Death, Where is your sting?

Oh Grave, Where is your Victory?"

-1 Corinthians 15:55



Happy New Year...

 

"In the Beginning..."

-Genesis 1:1

 

+

 

The first day of the Jewish New Year, 5774,

begins at day's end,

Sunset

tonight,

 

...where Beginnings so often happen,

 

in the darkness,

in the dying uncertain light,

in the apparent ending of a thing...

 

in the Letting Go-s....

 

Happy New Beginning my friends,

Happy Brand New Day

Happy Rosh Hashanah...

 

It's going to be Extraordinary...

 

+

 

"You crown the year with Your goodness,
And Your paths drip with abundance."

-Psalm 65:11

Genesis

 

"In the Beginning"

-Genesis 1:1

 

~+~

 

You hold me through the tantrum

through the kicking and screaming

through the heartbreaking bewilderment

of me,

of Your child...

 

...till the tears finally ebb

till my heaving heart slows

till Breath returns...

 

You hold me close close close...

till all is once again

Rest

 

and I curl up into the heart of You

buried in You

broken in You

but ready,

once again,

 

to

 

Bloom

 

~+~

 

"The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad,
and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose"

-Isaiah 35:1

The End?

 

"For only a penny you can buy two sparrows, yet not one sparrow falls to the ground without your Father knowing about it.  As for you, even the very hairs of your head are all numbered, so do not be afraid; you are worth much more than millions of sparrows!"

-Matthew 10:29-31

 

~+~

 

With every ounce of courage I have

(and with a great deal of cowardice too)
I let go...

 

..of all I have into all of You...

 

...the drop between the two feels like an eternity....
...like an acorn letting go of its oak,

 

all I feel is the falling......

 

The latent life that waits to emerge, the oak I am to become, giving shade, shelter, and strength to many, to all who come, begins to stir, even as I am broken open and buried,

covered in darkness and dying......

 

.....The Beginning.....

 

~+~

 

"That they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be Glorified."

-Isaiah 61:3

Behind the Seen...

 

"...and the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool, was heard in the temple while it was being built."

-1 Kings 6:7

 

***

 

"...but I don't hear anything..."

 

We don't always perceive with our senses what God is building in our lives; we tend to lean heavily on what we can see, hear, touch.....but so often God's work goes on beneath that surface, beyond what we can sense in the traditional sense of the word, and too often, we discount what we can't see, we dismiss what we can't hear, we toss aside what cannot be touched.....trading the transcendental for the tangible, overlooking Heaven's Hand entirely.

 

...We assume nothing's happening.

 

So much is happening.

 

All the time.

 

All around us.

 

I submit that it is only the merest percentage of the Almighty's activity which actually registers on our rusty ol' radar...yet how often and how hastily conclusions are drawn based on that laughably limited data.  How often do we intellectualize ourselves right out of knowing the mind of God?

 

So much of our despair, so many dark nights of the soul, so much angst could be averted if we allowed for what is beyond our scope.  If we could see the bigger picture, hear the building going on behind the scenes, our ears would become deaf to discouragement, and our disillusionment would all but disappear.
 

***

 

"Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways, and how small a whisper we hear of Him!  But the thunder of His power who can understand?"

-Job 26:14



Let There Be...and there was.

 

"Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know."

-Jeremiah 33:3

 

***

When we cry to God, God answers with His Word, and that very Word with which He answers us becomes Flesh, fleshes out in our lives.  Everything we need begins as a Word, is contained in His Word.

Man needed a Savior, the Word Himself became flesh.

We need light, the Word Himself becomes a lamp to our feet.

We need healing, God speaks a Word

Captives need deliverance, deliverance is preached, or spoken

and the Truth of the Word makes them free

 

We underestimate the power in the deceptively innocuous,
seemingly intangible Word

Yet it was a Word that created our World and the Heavens above,

"Let there be..." and there was.

 

To take it futher, John 1:1 says that the Word is God. 

Let that little gem stew in your noodle for five minutes.

 

So what is God telling you?  What is His Word speaking to you?  With what piece of Himself has God answered you?  Take some time to be still, to be quiet, so you can listen, so you can hear...

Consider the posture you take when you are truly listening for something...

 

Jesus said in Luke 10:42, "One thing is needed" referring to Mary sitting at His feet and hearing His Word.  Sitting, being still, and hearing God's Word is not a passive pursuit, but a holy interaction with the Word Himself, wherein everything that is needed is invoked into our lives, so that Word, once again, can become Flesh, continuous creation, our lives becoming a consecrated conduit between Heaven and Earth.

 

"Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord."

-Luke 1:45

 

***

 

Garden

 

"A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse,

a spring shut up, a fountain sealed."

-Song 4:12

 

~ ~ ~

 

To everything there is a season,

Seasons of confinement are followed by Seasons of release

this cycle evidenced in the smallest of seeds...

The life within, locked away,

but potent with potential when planted...

 

There are seasons when we are, indeed, sealed and shut up,

but these seasons are meant to precipitate a powerful emergence...

Even the bible is silent for four hundred years,

between the old and the new testament,

as the bow was being drawn and directed

tensed to release the embodiment of Torah into Terra,

Word become Flesh

Seed become Sight

The Messiah

 

So also our lives are meant to emerge

from seed sown

to Heaven's harvest...

We are, for awhile, sealed and shut up,

but as a means to an end,

to bloom, to blossom,

to bear fruit with which He can feed His sheep

beauty for ashes

rest for the weary
succor for every sojourning soul

Word, once again, become flesh

The very garden of God

 

~ ~ ~

 

"Awake, O north wind, and come, O south!

Blow upon my garden once again,

That its spices may flow out"

-Song 4:16

Respirate

 

 "Come from the four winds, O Breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may Live."

-Ezekiel 37:9

***

 

Respirate......literally, Re-spirit......

...to be restored to life, infused with Spirit, also known as the Holy Spirit,

the Ruach ha kodesh in Hebrew,

literally translated,

the very Breath of God.

Wishing all who are weary today

Breath

Respiration

 

Be Still, Look Up, Breathe Deep, my friends,

 

The Very Breath of God

 

***

 

"I will cause Breath to enter into you,

and you shall Live."

-Ezekiel 37:5

True Love's Turning....

^"The appearance of the wheels and their workings was like the color of beryl, and all four had the same likeness. The appearance of their workings was, as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel."

-Ezekiel 1:16

+

 

Even as God desires that we "live and move and have our being" in Him, so also, God wants to live, move, and have His being within us, to live through us....to live out His Life through our Life,

a wheel within a wheel...

 

Seamless interconnection, Completely engaged with our Creator

...He moves, we move, He turns, we turn, He stops, we stop.....

 

This gorgeous intimacy, Two become One, Perfect Unity,

Our triune lives the physical, mental, spiritual expression of The Trinity, of True Love Himself...

+

 

^"...that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us... that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one,

that the world may know...that You love them..."

-John 17:21-23

 

 

Come

+++

Ours is not a neat and tidy tradition, religiously speaking.....Our God seems to have a thing for the sideways, the wayward, the wanderlusts among us.....Ragamuffins and Ruffians seem to be His companions of choice...Ours is an off-the-beaten-path and back-street savior, as evidenced throughout the New Testament. 

His strategems scandalized the "saintly", His social mores turned the modus operandi of the day on its ear.....He sought out sinners' company, He broke bread with those more at home in brothels and barrooms...He hung out on the fringes with the fringes,

and they loved Him

 

He tore down ivory towers that obscured peoples' view of God - replete with marble foyers, chandeliers, and the red carpet of the day -

 

and instead built His kingdom in the stables of our hearts, ever his humble birthplace and hangout of choice.

 

Ours is not a polished prince who wants polished prose
out of a polished posterity,

I think He rather prefers the prayers that are a little wrinkly, maybe with gum stuck to the bottom; I think He wants Real and not Rehearsed......Velveteen Rabbits versus the virtuous self-righteous.

I think He wants the fresh air of imperfect friends

not the Febreeze of practiced pharisaical dogma

 

so really, if you want to be like Jesus, Come...

Come misfit and messy, Come illegitimate and exposed,
Come vagabond and vulnerable

 

That's how He came...

and His coming

changed

the

World.

 

+++

 

^"Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples.  And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  Why don't you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

 

-Matthew 9:10-13

Pilgrim's prayer...

 

 

***

 

"Lead, Kindly Light, amidst th'encircling gloom,
Lead Thou me on
The night is dark, and I am far from home,
Lead Thou me on..."

 

-John Newman

the 99 and the 1...

 

 

***

 

"What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?"

-Luke 15:4

Minding

"to be spiritually minded is life and peace"

-Romans 8:6

 

***

 

To be mindful of spirit......to put our mental energy into spirit.....this, Paul says, breeds life and peace.......

 

When I consider where my mental energies usually go, I would have to say they are invested rather heavily into the body, into my flesh and bone, rather than spirit.  If I were to tally up this particular investment, I would guess that the mental energy I put into, say, my waistline, directed elsewhere, could probably solve world peace....and certainly hasn't produced "life and peace", angst and self-loathing are most often the outcome, especially when carb calculations come into play.  ; )

 

I wonder then, if redirected, what the kinetic energy of a spirit-focused mind would set in motion...the seed of an acorn creates the mighty Oak.....what, if tended to, could the seed of my spirit produce into this world....if steeped in God's presence, could Word not once again become flesh?  Could the apparently ethereal and insubstantial spirit become substance for a world desperately in need of substance?  Bread of Life and Living Water, Life and Peace, for all who are hungry, for all who are thirsty, for all who long for life and pray for peace? 

 

It would seem I've placed the cart before the horse...flesh before spirit. 

Both are important, but equally important,

 is which is driving which.......

***

"The earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God."

-Romans 8:19

Why?

 

+

 

....When our world gets turned upside down,

our hearts once again sucked under in grief.....

We tend to turn toward Heaven and ask,

 

"Why?"

 

I wonder,

 

If Heaven is also turned toward us

Tears in His eyes

and on His lips,

the very same query......

 

"Why?"

 

+

 

"Jesus wept."

-John 11:35

 

For the victims of the Boston marathon massacre...

which all of us are....

Lord, hear our prayer

Be Still My Soul

 

 

 

Come away....

"Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves

and rest for a while"

-Mark 6:31

 

+

 

Finding stillness on a planet that never stops spinning

straining against its centrifugal force to find solace

to find Center
 

The ripples subside and my soul becomes glass

reflecting to me my inmost thoughts

my deepest dreams

my Path with impenitent precision
 

This precious hiatus, this fulcrum

Away from earth's frenetic flood

Where Lost becomes Found

Where the riptide of reason recedes

Where the sanity of the Still and Small resurfaces

and the Communion born of solitude is restored
 

Thus filled

Thus stilled

I emerge

 Resurrected

Ready once again to re-enter

the round rhythm

of another Day

 

+

 

"Rise up, my love, my fair one,and come away"

-Song 2:10

True Love

***

 

"Jesus loves me this I know, for the bible tells me so...."

 

...for the bible tells me so

 

not "for I've followed Him flawlessly"

 

or "for I've been so faithful"

 

but simply,

 

for the bible tells me so...

 

Love's barometer is not set (or upset) by our behavior

 

He loves you because He loves you because He loves you

 

not because of "good works which you've done"

 

not because of anything you've done

 

(or not done)

 

but rather because of who you are,

 

namely,

 

His

 

His creation

 

His chosen

 

His child...

 

Jesus loves you this I know,

for the bible tells me so.

 

***

 

"I have loved you with an everlasting love"

-Jeremiah 31:3

True Love II

 

+++

 

utterly broken at His feet...completely at His mercy

no question of my guilt

witnesses abound...

 

Tensed against the inevitable onslaught of stones

eternity elapses

as I wait.....

 

One by one

He takes them on,

staring them down,

daring my accusers to lay a hand on His beloved...

 

In that look their own stone worthy sins

surface next to mine

my death sentence is suspended,
His is sealed

 

Then,

there is silence

The only sound that of footsteps

fading into the distance

 

There is You

and  there is me

 

Breath bated, body braced,

I await judgement

 

but once again

 

and again

 

and again

 

I find Mercy

 

+++

 

"I have loved you with an everlasting love"

-Jeremiah 31:3

 

Fallen

 

+++

 

Tumbling down this rabbit hole

Broken and bloodied

Darker and Diving

Till I see no more

The Light

The Way out

 

Uneasily at home

In a place far from Home

I long for Life

But cling to what is known

Cry out for rescue

But cower from Your reply

 

This once sure footed shepherdess

now in need of Your staff and rod

Come despite my foolishness

my failings

my fear

 

and find me

 

+++

 

"Never will I leave you.  Never will I forsake you."

-Hebrews 13:5

To Life

"I place before you this day life and death...Choose Life"

-Deuteronomy 30:19

 

Talk about things that go without saying.....this direction seems superfluous in the extreme, a no-brainer extraordinaire, like being told to choose the plane with wings versus the one without.  Do we really need to be told to "choose life" over death?  Rich fulfillment over decay?  Apparently God thought so....

Why this bent in our make up, why this hitch in our mental hardware? 

Perhaps because the choice for life often requires, ironically, a death to oneself, to what one knows, to what one has grown accustomed to and familiar with, and therein lies the rub.

I, like Job, wasn't around when these things were being decided, when this contract was negotiated....

...but I know the One who was.....the One who was willing to die so I would have the choice to live....

I don't pretend to understand it....

 

but I am so very grateful for it.

 

may we all have the grace, courage, and strength to Choose Life.

 

***

 

"For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it"

-Matthew 16:25

Onward

 

 

+++

 

Squinting into the haze ahead

Straining to see a semblance of...something...

Tentative letting go
of threads which tether me to what I know...

 

My once courageous heart recoils

leaning back into a leek and onion legacy...

preferring marginalism to manna

the monotony of the perceivable

to the miracle of parting seas

 

But His unswerving vision

sees the forest in spite of the trees

He knows the way I take

And is determined I should take it

 

For all my looking back
and the lure of illusory retreat

There is nothing now

but a pillar of cloud

and a Red Sea
in which yesterday is drowned

 

The past is no longer a viable port

and so I press on

into Unseen
and Unknown,

Trusting this Hand that Shepherds me on

to one day lead me
Home

 

-E.A.A. "Hindsfeet"  1/11/13

 

+++

 

"I will bring the blind by a way they did not know;
I will lead them in paths they have not known.
I will make darkness light before them,
And crooked places straight.
These things I will do for them,
And not forsake them."

-Isaiah 42:16

 

New

 

+++

 

Genesis beckons

into Journey beyond

what we have known

what we can see...

 

into courage for Crossing

from death into Life

over our Jordans

into all that will be

 

Our souls are laid bare

as the past falls away

we long to be clothed

with dawning of Day

 

Life will not be bested

so brave steps ensue

He gives beauty for ashes

 

All things will be made New

 

+++

 

"The Lord God is my strength,
and He will make my feet like hinds' feet,
and he will make me walk upon mine high places."

-Habakkuk 3:19

 

 

Incarnation

 

"In the beginning was the Word...

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us..."

-John 1:1, 14

 

+++

 

As in the beginning,

The Word still seeks

safe harbor

in hearts that

would become

willing wombs...

 

These hearts of dust

become Heaven's creche,
bearers of Gospel,
Word, again, becomes flesh

+++

Merry Christmas dear ones,
love,
Elizabeth "Hindsfeet"

 

"Then Mary said, 'Behold the maidservant of the Lord!  Let it be to me according to your word.'"

-Luke 1:38

lamentation

 

 

+++

 

hearts hang,

battered,

half staff

 

with Jesus

we weep

 

+++

 

"Jesus wept."

-John 11:35

 

while my heart cannot wrap around the grief
of the Sandy Hook tragedy,

my hope is in my very small way to weep with those who weep,

and in so doing,

bear with them their grief

 

-e.a.a. "Hindsfeet"



Beautiful Fall

 

~***~

 

Live

 

Live this Life

 

We linger but for awhile

But Oh! How lovely the lingering can be

When we allow it to be

 

When we are freed from fearfully grasping

hanging on too long to moments past

clutching tightly to the present

weighed down with angsty wringing of hands

with shoulds and could haves and would haves...

 

Allow Love

Allow Joy

Yes, allow even frivolity

fearless leaps

new beginnings

second chances

 

We linger for such a short while

then we flutter

and fall...

 

Live so that in the falling

there is no longing

no looking back...

only a knowing

that Life was Lived...

 

Live so that when you fall

your fall is not tragic

but a tantalizing display

a dignified denoument

a fearless fluttering

a beautiful fall

 

Live

 

~***~

 

"I came that they might have Life, that they might have abundant Life"

John 10:10



Come...

"Come to Me, all you are are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you Rest."

-Matthew 11:28

 

***

 

Center down, get quiet, calm your mind, still your body

 

Know the Still Small Voice that brought about this Great Big World, and let that lovely paradox wash through your reason.....
and your need for reasons.......

 

Let the peace of His Words resonate within you, till all is peace,
till every frenetic thing in you parellels itself with this plumb line.

 

Let it go now......let it all go......

 

Feel beneath you the Everlasting Arms

 

Feel above you, and all around you, His embrace...

 

Know that you are gathered in, safe now...

 

Know that you are loved beyond what you can imagine,
what you will ever be able to imagine

 

my dear, beloved friend,

 

Come now to the end of your endless searching

Lay it down....lay it all down....

 

Come instead to the place of being Found

 

Come as a child

Come as you are

as the wonderful beloved treasure you are...

He is waiting

He is here

He is Rest

 

Come

 

***

 

"Peace Be Within You"

-Psalm 122:7

Hope...

"yet now there is hope in Israel in spite of all this"

-Ezra 10:2

***

"...in spite of all this..."

in spite of the biggest messes we can make,
in spite of the worst that can happen,
in spite of disappointments and dead-ends,
mistakes and mis-steps,

There Is Hope.

What reassuring, resuscitating, no-matter-what Words

They come on the heels of Israel's utter unfaithfulness, going head to head with God's unflinching faithfulness...guess which one wins.

Hope indeed

How many times have I come to the end of my rope, head hung low, beggar's hands held out, hardly daring to hope for an Ear to hear, for my Savior to save for the seventy times seventh time...yet every time, without fail, underscored by unimaginable mercy, powered by a Love consumed with His beloved, He comes, help comes,

Hope comes

in spite of myself
in spite of it all

thanks be to God
 

***

 

"Why are cast down, O my soul?  And why are you disquieted within me?  Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God."

-Psalm 42:11

Lilies and Birds....

"Consider the lilies...Consider the birds..."

-Luke 12:24-28

 

***

Lilies and Birds...

...having in common uncommon comeliness

diminutive beauty for beauty's sake

meticulously mixed metaphor

written between lovely lines...

 

...an invitation to total abandon into unseen Hands

painstakingly penned on petaled parchment

inscribed in winged word

 evidence of the Everlasting Arms

underneath, undergirding,

 

harboring, holding...

 

this delicate unfolding

 

of petals, of wings
 

this Becoming, this Being

 

till flight and flowering reach a sacred crescendo
and I flourish in your Hands once again

 

***

 

-e.a.a. "Hindsfeet"  9/28/12

Storm

"...the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary...Jesus went to them, walking on the sea...the disciples cried out for fear...immediately Jesus spoke to them saying, 'Be of good cheer!  I'm here!  Don't be afraid!'...and Peter said, 'Lord!  If it's really you, command me to come to you on the water!'"

-Matthew 14:24-28

 

 

***

When we're in the middle of a storm, our instinctive response is, "I want out!"

When Peter was in the boat, terrified by the turbulence, his cry to Jesus was, "I want out!", even if it meant plunging into the very sea that was at the heart of the stormy seige. 

Talk about "out of the frying pan, into the fire".

At that point, panic had prevailed over practicality....all he knew is, he wanted "out". 

Aren't we sometimes like that?  When we're really in the thick of it, anything can seem preferable to the predicament we're in....all we know is, "we want out!"

It didn't occur to Peter in the middle of his panic, that maybe Jesus was there because He wanted in.

Peter's water-walking heroics was not what Jesus intended when He came to His loved ones' rescue -- though it makes for an interesting story on Sunday mornings -- Jesus allowed Peter to get his escapist escapade out of his system, sustained him through it, and then, between the lines, we can almost hear Jesus asking, "ok, now are you ready to invite me into the boat?"...

The wind did not cease when Peter got out of the boat....the wind ceased when Jesus got into the boat.

Instead of heeding the voice of primal fear which is screaming "I want out!" and plunging ourselves into futher peril, may we have the grace to stop, to wait, to breathe, to heed instead the voice of Jesus saying "I want in"......

He is waiting to take us safely into shore.

 

***

 

"When they got into the boat, the wind ceased."

-Matthew 14:32

Found

 

 

***

 

I find, once again,

 I'm sitting in front of

a blank canvas

 

A little daunting

A little disheartening

 

As I thought i would

more or less

pick up right where I left off

 

But someone shook the etch-a-sketch

while my back was turned

 

So I must begin again

 

to create

 

this time,

 

with the Creator

 

***

 

"Behold, I AM making all things New!"

-Revelations 21:5

Lost

 

"What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?"

Matthew 18:12

 

***

I wandered,
looking
longing
for Home

I thought I'd find it here
It was here just a moment ago

But someone has stripped the props
Changed the scene
Same stage
Different Play

Sideways

A neon sign hangs over my head
exposing my ugly duckling un-belonging

Just a moment ago I was a swan
How did things go so wrong

And once again I need the One
Who leaves the ninety-nine

To come make right as only He can
To find His child in a strange land

To call my name
To gather me up
To call me Found
To carry me

Home

***

"The Lord is my Shepherd"

Psalm 23:1

 

prayer II

"Trust Him always; pour out your heart to Him;

God is a refuge for us."

-Psalm 62:8

***

I've numbered all your wanderings

I hold all your tears in a jar

I'm here to listen to your heart, my dear one

tell me , my love, how you really are

My Lord, life feels so unwieldy

life and the choices it brings

what happened to my little hindsfeet

what happened to my wings?

I Am your wings, my brave one

You need have no alarm

I Am the Path that bears you up

Underneath are my everlasting arms

But I don't feel so brave, my Love

I don't see what you see

I am so flimsy, frail ,and fickle

How can what you say be?

(Love leans in with the most tender smile

and takes my face in His Hands...)

My Darling, listen close to Me

I see how hard you try

to make sense of all that is at hand

to navigate what feels like shifting sand

Remember the Lilies and the birds?

and all the lessons that you've learned?

yours is not to worry about tomorrow

I Am your Shepherd, all you need to do is follow

I do not trust my feet just now

or my eyes to see

or my ability to hear

each step I take is met with fear

Then trust My Footsteps in the Sand

I carry you, I hold your hand

Trust that you are the apple of My eye

Trust My ears to hear your cry

My dearest love for whom I gave all

Do you really think I'll let you fall?

You are the one who has ravished my heart

You are Solomon's song, life imitating art

Remember you are royalty

Remember who you are!

Now rise, my love, my fair one,

and leave your worries be

It's not so important that you know the way

What matters is that you know Me

***

"You have been upheld by Me from birth, you have been carried from the womb: Even to your old age, I am He, And even to gray hairs I will carry you!  I made you and I will care for you; I will carry you, and will deliver you."

-Isaiah 46:3, 4

prayer.....

"At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come...for you are greatly beloved."

-Daniel 9:23

***

When we need something from God, I mean really need something, what sort of response do we expect from the Most High?  How do we perceive His posture toward us?  Do we see a God "afar off", arms crossed, awaiting our polished prose and practiced petitions for help?  Is the assumption that we must make our case with carefully measured monologues, forty day fasts, lobbying, as it were, for even an audience with our Leige?  Do we feel the need to pound down Heaven's door to be heard? ..........Remember, it is He who stands at our door and knocks........

Here's the deal: We ask, God answers.  The answer may not show up for awhile; we may attribute it's arrival to our dutiful self-deprecating demonstrations, assuming our song and dance finally warranted the Almighty's attention, but the truth is, God sets an answer in motion the moment we ask, sometimes before we ask ("Before they call, I will answer"-Isaiah 65:24).  We have a God who is "ready to save" (Isaiah 38:20), an "In The Beginning" God, a God who answers not based on our "righteous deeds", but based on His mammoth mercies (Daniel 9:18).

So next time you need something, really need something, just ask;

the answer may already be on its way.

***

"Do not fear...for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come..." 

-Daniel 10:12

Homecoming

***

The One Who makes His home in our hearts invites us to make our home in His.  He found His way into our stable so we could find our way into His Kingdom; He lived among men so that we could live among angels; He had nowhere to lay His head so that we'd always have somewhere to lay ours.

Hardly seems a commensurate arrangement.  Under the circumstances one might say Love is blind....

....I say Love saw clearly

....and came anyway.

***

"I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

Psalm 23:6