Showing posts with label beauty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beauty. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 29, 2023

For We, Four-Season Lovers

 


As 'winter' descended with a vengeance this week
conversations turned season-ward...ready or not, winter always comes!




I hope/try to be a four-season lover both literally and metaphorically!
For everything we love in seasons that never stay,
each season holds so many unexpected and lovely surprises
if we keep our hearts, arms, ears and eyes open!

Yesterday I lingered over this tray of autumn-gourds,
aka, the Creator's creations
I was reluctant to trade them for more Christmas-flavored décor...


...but then, Christmas joy cheers autumn sorrow!
though, subconsciously I am already preparing for the pangs, when the time comes 
of tucking away dried orange slices and cookie-cutter stars,
(however, it feels like I just did that and here we are, hanging them once more!!!)





For we, four-season lovers
Of green, gold, red and white
Of constantly bowled over
By waves of sheer delight
Of shamelessly confounded
By annual buffets
Of creation unbounded
To enchant and amaze
Of thought, agog with wonder
Of hearts taken by storm
As God turns mortal thunder
To worship’s purest form
Of love’s aleatory
Hymn, from we, humbly awed
At fringes of the glory
And majesty of God

For we, four-season lovers
That grapple with heart-ties
Tangled in fields of clover
And colors of sunrise
And friendships, forged with flits of
Petalled and feathered things
And all the lovely bits of
Beauty each season brings
From spring’s green-misted bowers
To summer’s butterflies
To autumn’s tattered flowers
To winter’s wooly skies
We find fresh exclamations
Of gladness to console
Farewells. Joy heals abrasions
Where love had left a hole

For we, four-season lovers
Imbibed with glints of time
As thankfulness discovers
Life’s commonplace sublime
To startle us with laughter
Rather than vain laments
As God regales both rafter
And deep, with excellence
His goodness fills each season
With His marvelous ways
To kindle perfect reason
To praise Him all our days
To give Him more than merely
Religion’s austere nod
But rather worship dearly
Our four-season God

© Janet Martin

To give Him more than merely
Religion’s austere nod
But rather worship dearly
Our four-season God...


Ps.147
Praise ye the Lord: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; 
for it is pleasant; and praise is comely.
The Lord doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.
He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.
Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.
The Lord lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground.
Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God:
Who covereth the heaven with clouds, 
who prepareth rain for the earth, 
who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.
He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.
He delighteth not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man.
The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.
Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion.
For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates; he hath blessed thy children within thee.
He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat.
He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly.
He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes.
He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold?
He sendeth out his word, and melteth them: he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow.
He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel.
He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them.
 Praise ye the Lord.

Thursday, October 5, 2023

Awed Conclusion

 









I’ve come to the conclusion that each season is the best
That beauty knows know bounds and that it never takes a rest

That the best things in life are free; tis up to you and I
To not miss out on happiness, that money cannot buy

…but, treasure the fleet measure of each season as it skims
The place of our existence with a host of worship hymns

…tucked into nooks and crooks and splashed sky and countryside-wide
No matter where we look God is impossible to hide

…and, I’ve come to the conclusions as the seasons run and run
If wonder cast a shadow, we would never see the sun

© Janet Martin




Eccles. 12:13-14
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:
 Fear God, and keep his commandments:
 for this is the whole duty of man.
 For God shall bring every work into judgment,
 with every secret thing, 
whether it be good, 
or whether it be evil.

Wednesday, June 21, 2023

Care's Counterbalance...Creator's Kindness



Let's pray in these times-like-never-before 
where nations are turning from God like never before
that we who believe commit to seeing, hearing, obeying,
relying on and worshipping Him like never before...

Many are the witnesses of faith we may look to for courage, chiefly Jesus!!

Heb.12:1-2
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
 let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us,
 and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
 2looking unto Jesus, the [a]author and [b]finisher of our faith,
 who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, 
despising the shame, and has sat down 
at the right hand of the throne of God.

When we delight in the beauty of creation
it is not hard to believe that our Creator God is awesome above all else!!





Isaiah 46:9
Remember the former things of old:
for I am God, and there is none else; 
I am God, and there is none like me,





Sometimes life’s woes could blind us to God’s kindnesses unfurled
To counterbalance creature cares in a care-laden world
He tunes heaven and earth with boons too manifold to count
He woos us to drink deeply from June’s leaf and flower fount

Where once again He clothes the land with garb of seed and bud
To manifest His evidence, creation shouts His name
To quench credence to atheism’s cold and calloused claim

He comforts us with colours only His thought can compose
And sweetens Heaven-hunger with reason only He knows
Where each season showcases masterpieces, mercy-lent
Where nothing in this world replaces Goodness, mercy-bent

To well in us, in spite of aches and pangs that sting and press
A worship-bidden, wonder-smitten hymn of happiness
Of reverence and honour to He from Whom blessings pour
To awe and cheer us onward to the joy still set before

...to capture our attention with surprises full of grace
To lavish wounds of learning with fond glimpses of His face 
To never let life blind us to He who is kind and good
Whose invisible qualities are clearly understood

© Janet Martin



Rom.1:20
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—
his eternal power and divine nature—
 have been clearly seen, 
being understood from what has been made, 
so that people are without excuse.

Oh God!!! May I/we never live
 unawed!



Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Rapt Gaze/Praise


This is the day the Lord has made'
we will rejoice and be glad in it
Psalm 118:24







It's a brisk frost-embossed world this morning...
enough to drive wonder mad!



Granted to you and I, a gift to unwrap with rapt gaze/praise
To rouse replenished worship for mercy’s unwearied ways
Earth and sky like a smorgasbord groaning with beauty’s feast
Reminds us that life is far more than debt to duty’s beast

This is the day the Lord has made; tis by His grace we go
And mankind is never betrayed by He who loves us so
But trustworthy and true He helps us each step of the way
All you and I are called to do is trust Him, and obey

No melancholy mandate this, no grin-and-bear-it grind
For He who keeps His promises is merciful and kind
Where a parade of proofs displayed drives rapt gaze/praise wonder-mad
In this new day the Lord has made to rejoice and be glad

© Janet Martin





 

 

Wednesday, December 14, 2022

For All The World To See

 







From divine providence
And unplumbed majesty
God spills unrivaled excellence
For all the world to see

The wonder that yet waits
Evades our eyes and ears
Save, through a gap in pearly gates
Where glory’s glimpse appears

Before dumbfounded gaze
God flings His artistry
The firmaments declare His praise
For all the world to see

     Let's pause, because the earth
And sky profusely brim
With creation's marvelous mirth
In evidence of Him

...and it would be a shame
To rush negligently
Where all creation shouts His Name
For all the world to see

© Janet Martin

Let them praise the name of the Lord,
    for his name alone is lifted up;
        his majesty transcends earth and heaven.



Monday, October 31, 2022

Awesome or Awe's Sum



Beauty burgeons and brims, even in the rain
The vault of earth and heaven's hymns overflows with refrains  



The beauty of the heavens and the earth awakens awe
Where short-lived showcases of birth soon yield to nature’s law
Where, like the train of God’s robe, glory’s fringes spill and brim
To fill the temple of the globe with ‘Holy’ holy’s’ hymn

The beauty of creation is made plain for all to see
Four-season celebration of Divine Authority
Where we are granted glimpses of a Better Timeless Place
While masterpieces of God’s love astonish human race

Beauty and brokenness cohere in breath stealing display
A mosaic of smile and tear, of warm gold and cold gray
Where the bliss of beholding cannot thwart the fundament
Of farewell’s kiss enfolding what no sigh can circumvent

Where beauty’s bowers thunder with the evidence of He
Whose miracle in wonder is perfect humility
As we fix our gaze on Him rather than selfish aim
As earth and heavens coffers brim with glory to His name

The beauty we behold on earth on That Glad Day will dim
As our mortal death gives birth to an immortal hymn
The miracle of wonder’s perfected humility
The pure worship that thunders throughout all eternity

The beauty of creation is the whisper of yon cast
As stuttered exaltation finds love’s perfect words at last
As broken hearts are mended and as Eden is restored
The blood-washed soul ascended and forever with the Lord

© Janet Martin