“Why does hope spring after tragedy?
Is it weakness in sorrow, a failure of grief?
What makes us look up and watch for the dawn?”
Wiping away his tears, his Teacher softly answered,
“‘It’s elementary, my dear Watson,’
We were made for eternity
Not this life alone.”
Cee’s FOTD
Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt #199: prose or poem in 47 words exactly using the word “element” or its forms.
For the listener, who listens in the snow, And, nothing himself, beholds nothing that is not there and the nothing that is. — Wallace Stevens, “The Snow Man”
There ought not to be anything but that my mind has ordered it so —
So I had been taught — for the mind is designer
Reality but the by-blow, bastard child that diminishes as I diminish
But that the Emperor of Ice-Cream has clay feet
Which stand on eternity’s threshold eyeing a feast.
There the bread and wine of Thy design
Grain and grape sweetly lies upon the tongue
To “taste and see the goodness of the LORD”
Yet nothing tasting if not sanctified by Thy Word
Blood spilled and body broken
Spoken gospel of love heard by a few
Who once nothing being are born in You
Till nothing become sons and daughters
Alive to You.
Laura at dVerse asks us to address paradox as a matter for today’s “Poetics” prompt, including using as a starting point and/or epigraph the above Wallace Stevens quotation. Click on Mr. Linky for more and join in!
It’s the weekend, right? Let’s relax and party, maybe do a little rap for Michelle’s #JanuaryWritingPrompts (“space juice”), Sammi’s #WWP (100 words, “crucible”), and Linda’s #JusJoJan & #SOC (“limitless”). Hope you enjoy it! ❤️
I know what you’re thinking
You say I’m just dreaming
Maybe drinking space juice
Telling me
you’re cool
too loose
so intellectual
not buying puffy clouds
of television charlatans
but you’re at Oprah’s book club
sold on a Joseph Campbell
mythic spiel of deity.
Listen, I’m not crazy
look at what’s been given me
my faith, a light leading me
through this dark crucible called life
I can see glory
where you deny the invisible
chasing material illusions
hanging on to your blinders
chained down, walled up
by circumstance
when you could be glorying
in the limitless grandeur¹
of God.
¹Ecclesiastes 3:11
Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
When I first saw, “Servant,” the #JusJoJan prompt for today, the first thought that popped into my head was, “Christ Jesus,” and then the words of Phiippians 2:5-11*(see below). My quandary? M’s prompt word: “Twin-engine turbines.” But it proved to be a blessing in disguise as it gave me the shape of the story: a parable. Serendipity!
Our Life, His Work: A Parable
–What are you making, child? the Servant asked.
Everywhere metal sheets and rotor blades lay in a tangle of wires.
–See this twin-engine turbine? The boy held up a photo. My 3-D printer makes it simple.
–Simple, eh?
The boy looked around before answering.
-Well, it’ll just take a few days, maybe weeks …. maybe months …. His voice trailed away. It looked simpler when I got started. But somewhere along the way, I lost track of what I was meant to do.
He took in the tangled mess around him and finally the shiny aircraft in his photograph. His face fell.
–Well, now, said the Servant, it will be a grand thing when it’s done. Maybe you could use a little help. Mine, for example.
The boy looked up, his face suddenly alight with hope and renewed confidence.
–Really? Will you help? Please.
The Servant looked down at the expectant face, his own lit with Love.
–It’s why I came, child.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2: 5-11(ESV)
Michelle's January 3, 2021 Writing Prompt: "Twin-engine turbines" Linda's Just Jot It for January 3rd, "Servant"
God is merciful. Christians will quickly – and rightly! – agree with this awesome statement. And we find great comfort and hope in the mercy of God. …
The Great Mercies of God (Goodwin)
May the great mercy of God attend us in the new year. Hallelujah!
And still the Light abides
and the darkness has not overcome it:
though rabbit-wild my exiled spirit roams
where bare limbed shadows
squawk of quasi-subliminal maws
in which the world in mammoth caves
watches figures on Olympian walls
cavorting corporate-jet-fueled
and calls them gods.
Written for dVerse Quadrille 117: "The Dude Abides" A quadrille is 44 words, and this time Lisa asks us to use the word "abide." Click on Mr. Linky and join in!
Deuteronomy 7: 9 — Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.
Ephesians 1: 3-4 — Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
Psalm 27:5 — For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.
Cee's FOTD Challenge
I’m lonely without You, Lord,
though all the world be mine
the city’s blue-gray skyline
the starry twinkling host
I need to know you near me
Your love-light in my eye
the fragrance of your Spirit
the sweetness of your Word
somewhere I took a wrong turn
I chased my own desire
a world of smug contentment
but lacking peace of mind
I know you never left me
so I feel you all the more
when I’ve turned my back to you
your tender love ignored
I don’t know why I do this
leave you, then come back
as if I never knew You
as if my faith were dead
returning then I seek You
repenting of time lost
joyous to talk to You, Lord,
and walk with You again.
Are You not the Light, O Lord, and we but the mirror? Disperse the clouds that obstruct Thy light and be Thou our vision. Amen.
“Unless the LORD builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.
It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he gives to his beloved sleep.”
Psalm 127:1-2 (ESV) A Song of Ascents
Beautiful bedtime song from Fernando Ortega: “Jesus, King of Angels.”
May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus be with you tonight and give you a good night’s sleep free from all anxiety to greet the new day with fresh hope.
Jesus, King of angles, Heaven’s light
Shine your face upon this house tonight.
Let no evil come into my dreams,
Light of Heaven, keep me in your peace.Remind me how you made dark spirits flee,
And spoke your power to the raging sea,
And spoke your mercy to a sinful man –
Remind me, Jesus, for this is what I am.The universe is vast beyond the stars
But Your are mindful when a sparrow falls
And mindful of the anxious thoughts
That find me, surround me, and bind meWith all my heart I love you,
Sovereign Lord.
Tomorrow, let me love you even more,
And rise to speak
The goodness of Your name
Until I close my eyes in sleep again.The universe is vast beyond the stars
But you are mindful when a sparrow falls
And mindful of the anxious thoughts
That find me, surround me, and bind meJesus, King of angels, Heaven’s light
Hold my hand,
And keep me through this night
