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Lightening and Love
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Category Archives: poetry
Moments
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Moments
All that we live splinters into moments
Moments of grace
Moments of beauty
Moments of mercy
For which we give thanks.
Moments of grace when we deserve nothing
Sweet fat dimpled hands reach up for a kiss
Wrinkled shaky fingers caress my cheek
Strong hand holds mine all covered with prayer.
Moments of light, of color, of beauty
Dancing of fireflies below with streaks of electricity above
Colors of sky and sun filter down through red and gold
Sounds of water dancing, sparkling, rushing, chasing.
Moments of mercy given at just the right time
Delight of child when sister gives a gift
Food brought when time and energy is spent
A whisper brings knowledge of love from the divine
Our splintering moments rush together as one
Grace, beauty, mercy all show us His love
Even in darkness I can open my eyes
To all these and more and give thanks to our Lord.
edited from the archives
Word Revealed and Revealing
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The Word is.
The Word is and the Word reveals what is.
God breathed the Word and life blazed out.
Life exploded into being and revealed God to man.
The life of the heavens and the life of the earth revealed.
They revealed His invisible qualities to all who cared to look.
It is the nature of words and the Word to reveal.
God sent the Word and new life blazed out.
Jesus was the Word and He spoke the words that revealed God to man.
The Word revealed the heart of God far more than life ever could.
As the people received the Word, new life exploded into being.
They were formed by the Word.
The Word formed the people into new life, a new creation.
This new creation then spoke the same Word and new life again blazed out.
As we receive the Word, we are formed by the Word.
We, too, become new life. We, too, then speak the same Word.
The revelation of the heart of God continues through the generations.
It is the nature of words and the Word to reveal.
The Word reveals what is.
The Word is.
Art credits: space photos by NASA; Christ and the Samaritan Woman painting by Henryk Siemiradzki; The Road to Emmaus painting by Robert Zund; all other photos copyright Made Sacred 2017
Hope
To hear my blog post read aloud, just click the play button. If you’re reading this in an email, you may have to click here to hear the post on my site.
Can you feel it?
It is the satin of an apple blossom on your cheek.
Can you smell it?
It is damp earth and greening trees.
Can you hear it?
It is hints on the breeze of a song of new life.
Close your eyes
and breathe.
It is real
and it is waiting beneath what you can see.
We are meant
to be real.
We are meant
to recognize the real.
Close your eyes to what you can see
and breathe in
the real.
Fill yourself up with what
is given at all times
and is surrounding what you may see.
Can you sense it?
Satisfy yourself with what is deeper for it
is real.
…we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. (Heb. 6.18-20)
For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. (Rom. 8.24-25)
(poem and photos copyright by Made Sacred 2013)
The flu hit our home this week, so I pray you will enjoy this poem edited from the archives.
Never! Said I
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I would never do that.
No, never! Said I.
Horrified, confident, righteous within.
Never? He said
with a gleam in his eye.
Perhaps, yes perhaps, and yet.
This little thing?
What about this small little thing?
Oh, that? That’s nothing.
Said I with a grin.
That surely won’t matter
in the vast scope of life.
So yes, I’ll do that and enjoy.
Well, what about this?
Just a teensy bit larger.
And the pleasure is much larger still
Oh, that? That’s still nothing.
Said I, standing tall
This too, doesn’t matter
it surely won’t hurt
those around me or go against God’s will.
Said he with the gleam
You’re so close, just look
at what could be savored and gained.
I turned ’round
and suddenly saw with despair
my righteousness lying quite stained.
I did it, yes did it.
How could I? Said I.
with shock and confusion within.
Your confidence blinded.
Said he with the gleam.
You trusted in self not in Him.
copyright 2012 by Elizabeth Giger
from the archives
Circling
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Life is a circle.
It loops and it circles around again.
It circles back through the beginning
and around and down through the end.
What once was before
now circles round into trend.
God knelt down low and breathed
dirt to become man and life.
His breath circles back
to raise man out of strife
when Holy Spirit wind divides
dead heart from new like a knife.
What began in a garden
with successful tempting of man,
circled back to a garden
and the culmination of God’s plan.
Temptation was repeated
but this time was banned.
God’s love and God’s holiness
leads to God putting on skin.
His wrath pours out on sin,
His mercy pours it out on Him.
When wrath circles back to the cross,
it turns out that love wins.
When Word became flesh,
He climbed down into time.
He breathed our air and
turned water into wine.
One day Word will circle back
and earthly life will join the Divine.
Life is a circle.
It loops and it circles around again.
It circles back through the beginning
and around and down through the end.
What once was before
now circles into trend.
Would You?
He looked in her eyes and asked, Would you?
He showed her the beginning, the imagining of dread,
the fear for her baby, the images in her head.
He showed her the disappointment, how time and again
she would hope and then lose, how hope starts to wane,
and asked, Would you?
He showed her the middle, the losing of hair,
the nausea and mouth sores, the exhaustion she’d bear.
He showed her the baby, the years she would miss
and the husband she’d leave and how he’d come adrift,
and asked, Would you?
He showed her the end, the terrible pain,
the loss of her own self, how her mind would be changed.
He showed her how hard it would be to let go of
her life, showed the grief of all those that she loved,
and asked, Would you?
Then He looked in her eyes and showed her one man.
One man who would see the result of God’s plans,
the plans that would turn her pain into glory,
the plans that would turn her night into morning.
He showed her the one who would see what she went through
and the result of his seeing would make him become all new.
He showed her the one who would see her pain, the one
who would watch and see Jesus the Son.
He showed her brief pain lift him out of the slime
and give his soul over to God for all time,
and asked, Would you?
She looked in His eyes and said, Yes.
The beautiful idea behind this poem came from my Dad.
I Long
I long.
I long for the day
When it all falls away and
I rest.
When I rest in His grace
Or I gaze at His face then
I know.
I will know He is love
That all light comes from that love so
I trust.
I will trust that someday
All these clouds will roll away and so
I long.
Your Spirit
You have said that You will pour out Your Spirit.
You have said that You will pour out Your Spirit on us.
Have I ever experienced an outpouring?
I know that Your Spirit dwells in me.
I know that Your Spirit speaks to and dwells in me.
Do I have any idea what that truly means?
When You pour out Your Spirit, we will prophesy.
When You pour out Your Spirit, we will prophesy and have visions.
Am I missing out or is this promise for a later time?
If the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in me,
If the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in me and gives me power,
Then why do I fail so often?
If You have given Your Spirit to all who belong to Christ,
If You have given Your Spirit to all who follow and belong to Christ,
Please teach me what it truly means to live by Your Spirit and not by my flesh, because I do not understand.
Amen.
Breathe
He knelt down, leaned in close, and
breathed into the dust.
Dust became man and man
breathed in His image and life.
He breathed His Word and
Word gained skin and
breathed life into twelve who then
breathed that life into more.
Spirit became fire and
breathed mighty wind into
hearts and minds which then
breathed change into the world.
We breathe a human breath then
slip under the waters where
all breath stops and when
we come up we now have His
breath in our souls.