Beauty

"Believe just this moment that everything is being transfigured for His glory. Every step towards something beautiful already accomplishes something beautiful. Beauty and joy are found in every overcoming along the way.

Only those who believe in the beautiful — can collaborate in the miraculous."

-Ann Voskamp

"And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us..."  Psalm 90:17

"He has made everything beautiful in its time..."  Ecclesiastes 3:11

"The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing."  Zephaniah 3:17

"A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory."  Matthew 12:20

The crunch, crunch of chains

The rub, rub, whir of tire

A hiccup, pothole

World rushes past

Eyes rest on flower, flight of bird

Showers of liquid sun pebble through tree shadows

Onto my hair and neck

Warm moist air is drenched in scent - 

Magnolia, jasmine, roses...

Grey furry Goslings paddle clown-footed

behind their mothers, I pause,

letting this flock waddle by

I would have whizzed past

"not seeing the forest for the tree"

a tree of delicate beauty surrounded by

tall, sturdy pines

Am I this tree?

Or the cultivated tree?

High-maintance tree everyone wants

But God...

He may place us 

in an obscure, unknown place - 

Yet He watches over us.

"Keep me as the apple of the eye,

 hide me under the shadow of your wings."

Psalm 17:8

The oyster its pearl

Treasure chest its key

Perfume its cork

Rose its thorn

Eye its lid

Fruit its skin

But if shell is broken

Treasure unlocked

Perfume poured

Rose crushed

Eye opened

Fruit eaten

THEN we experience beauty

in all its fullness

Oh to write lyrics 

to the birds songs!

See, all the pine branches

like fingers pointing

to heaven!

Yet my finger, uncouth

will darken the white magnolia bloom

Even in this, we are as the

Mona Lisa painting: the "best known, the most visited,

 the most written about, the most sung about, 

the most parodied work of art in the world."^[1]

Kept protected behind bullet-proof glass.

He protects those He loves

In Love, Jesus, our Christmas rose

a tender shoot from the stump of Jesse

Wore a crown of thorns

He bled, wept

He was broken, unlocked

poured out, viewed - 

on the Cross

All for LOVE

"Taste and see that the LORD is good.

 Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!"

Psalm 34:8

He was broken

We eat the broken bread

His blood poured out for us

We drink the cup He pours

We remember He is beauty

Beauty is not beautiful

till uttered, extended and shared

Make our lives beautiful, Lord

"Then the King will desire your beauty.

Because He is your Lord, bow down to Him."

Psalm 45:11

"Give to the LORD, the glory due to his name; 

worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness."

Psalm 29:2

As I skid over gravel

park this bicycle

Sigh, gaze into the sky

Creator, Beautiful One!

Thank you!

Bluebird of Happiness

You flashed before my eyes
I was like Chicken Little, "the sky is falling!"
All wonder

I am enchanted by your coat of azure
and red vest

Many birds told me of your coming.

Robins sporting identical vests.

The gentle cooing of a mother dove

Huddled groups of Canadian geese...
smoking cigars in their tweed jackets and black bow ties

Jealous blue jays fretting about

The knock, knock of woodpeckers constructing homes for your nests

Mocking birds auditioning on the tops of trees,
it's the season for singing - songs fit for the King!

I wonder what the owl, ravens, vultures in their long trench coats are saying

Seagulls, hawks and the golden eagles swoop long and wide

"Chirp, chirp," the sparrows and Mr. and Mrs. Robin
are glad for your company

They will tell you a feast is to be had at my house

For I've placed a red ball full of black seeds
right outside my kitchen window

Won't you please come and visit me, little bluebird?

You are a piece of sky fallen to earth

Here, let me sing a little song to you...

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.

Each little flower that opens,
Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colours,
He made their tiny wings.

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all

He gave us eyes to see them,
And lips that we might tell
How great is God Almighty,
Who has made all things well.

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.

Easter Poem

"!Feliz Pascua de Resurrreccion!"
"Happy Easter!"
I smile to Juan, from Colombia,
who bags my groceries

"Happy Easter!"
I smile to the Pharmacist
Gladness exuberates
in flowers

We play mini golf
small boy with long
flowing locks
darts past

The dad and a friend
capped, bearded
fringed tallit trickles
down the waist

Blue thread reminds
to keep God's commands
(Numbers 15:38-41)

I ask about his little boy
"We cut hair at 3 years,
it's our tradition."
"In India there is a similar practice,"
I say

"It's our Passover week,"
he says
I know this means strict
dietary laws, Seder feast,
and no lamb.

"We are celebrating Easter,"
I say.     They nod.
"The Passover Lamb."
Did you hear me?
I wonder

"God bless you!" We say
to each other and
depart

"Pascua"

I love this word in Spanish
"Easter" and "Passover"
inextricably linked

Lamb's blood
saves us
Smeared on the doorposts
of our hearts

The Innocent One
Sacrificial Lamb
His life for ours
His blood for ours

When Christ agonized in the garden
Did it seem Good Friday to Him?

When His disciples betrayed,
abandoned and denied Him
Was it a Good Friday?

When He was mocked,
scourged and nailed to the Cross -
Was it a Good Friday?

When the whole world and
even His own Father
turned His back on Him -
Was it a Good Friday?

Or when the sky darkened
the rocks split
the temple curtain rent twain

And all of Satan's folly
was crushed under
Christ's heel

When, after that 1st awful Day
The 2nd day of waiting and wondering
Then, the 3rd day - at Sunrise.....

The rock pushed away
Angels attending

We came with our
anxieties and questions

And He calls us
by name

Now it is "Happy Easter"

He has risen victorious
He will reign victorious
till all His enemies
become a footstool
under His feet

His Spirit is sent
Lives within us

Together we will cry
with the host of heaven,

"Worthy is the Lamb
that was slain...."!

Holidays and gardening

I knock on her door
every holiday

I want to tell her
about Jesus

I bring her our
traditional baked goods

St. Patrick's day 
is no different



Irish soda bread and
a cut out green shamrock

St. Patrick was neither
a saint, nor Catholic, I say

He was captured and enslaved
Escaping after 6 years

When he was 40,
God spoke in a dream

Ireland. Take my Gospel
to Ireland, the land of your
slavery

The first convert?
His former master.

God's Spirit enlightened
the whole nation.

Hundreds of small churches
sprung up like the shamrock
that grew there.

Believers pinned shamrocks
to their coats, showing their
allegiance to this Triune God:
Father, Son and Holy Spirit



How will I show my friend
these holidays are what
the ancients called "holy days"?

I want to pull her outside now
as I sit by my mailbox
with dirt in my hands

I've been yanking fist fulls
of dirt and weeds out
so this bed will be
beautiful again

Mindlessly, I yank,
one patch left and I
look at it. Stop.
Glance at my fist again

No. It's three-leafed clover?
Little shamrocks sprinkled everywhere?
Spreading endlessly through the grass

Father, Son and Holy Spirit here?
In my hand? Under my feet?
About to be tossed out as weeds?

Mind racing -

Willaim Blake
"To see the world in a grain of sand, and to see heaven in a wild flower,
 hold infinity in the palm of your hands, and eternity in an hour."

King David
"The heavens declare the glory of God...
day to day pours out speech,...
their voice goes through all the earth"... Psalm 19:1-4

even Jesus said that if we are silent in our praises,
"the very stones will cry out." Luke 19:40

All of creation cries out in His praises to God,
"the mountains and the hills...shall break forth
into singing and the trees of the field will clap their hands."
Isaiah 55:12

Gerard Manley Hopkins
God's Grandeur
The world is charged with the grandeur of God
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil...
And for all this [man's smearing of creation],
Nature is never spent;
Their lives the dearest freshness of
deep down things...

My friend is neither American nor "Christian",
I can't expect her to understand
our holidays and traditions

But I want her to know the why -
the background -
the history -

Peeling off layer and layer
of man-made traditions -

Is the pure seed

Luke tells us,
"The seed is the Word of God."
Luke 8:11

John,
"In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God"
John 1:1

Come here
Dwell among us Lord
I see your presence, O Triune God,
in the sky and in the grass.
We greet You
We praise You  

Butterflies

Bottle brush trees
bloom first

Bright red scrubbing
sky clean

Lone yellow swallowtail*
flits between the brush trees

Can't decide

Gifts come
flitting by

A drawing
Curling antennas

red rose
with thorns

yellow swallowtail*
story told and captured

By my son
Then, a dear friend

package mailed
and opened

I catch the edge
it unfurls like wings

A rabble of butterflies
against blue gossamer sky

Is this how you love me,
O Saviour of mine?

Two gifts
like brush trees

I flit between them

Can't decide



*type of butterfly

March morning

The grass hasn't

built up resilience

Frozen and wind bitten

it dies

The barren landscape

tells all

How then the trees

budding pale green?

Roots deeper

True resilience

Pain

What is pain?
Anguish of soul
or body

They're inextricably mixed

I cry out
"Why God?"
"What did I do wrong?"

He answers me in
the sweet silence of
Pain.

Pain is
knowing where you are
and not running from it

Pain accepts
because you cannot escape

Pain crushes
       wounds
       humbles us

Pride, the unwelcome guest
packs up and leaves

Pain releases the
tight fist and
opens us up

to Life

Compassionate eyes
for all suffering

Grace comes

My 6 year old, Raja,
slips his thin arm in mine
"I'll help you, mommy!"

My dear hubby
signals me to see
the golden haze
outside

Rain washed slab stones
shine

Surprise!!

"Come quick, everyone!"
They rush to see

We beckon our neighbors
with an insistent knock

"Look, look" -
It's a double rainbow!

Glorious, bright and full
it fills our sky

"I'm so glad you showed us,"
they say,
"We would've missed it!"

In five minutes it's gone -
Clouds burn with envy

Later, suds flying
Grimy plates washed clean

and, Surprise!

Globe of liquid rainbows
rests on the soap bottle

A wink and a promise

God is in control
And all is well.