Photo by Jessica Cortez
I heard there was a party not in this Cage of flesh and bone
Since there is little or no magic here, I am stepping on down the road
Time is out of mind, send me an inviting card
Just swaying in the Twilight, leaving earth won’t be so hard
I was interviewed in a gutter, took a catnap in a palace grand
Just a wayfaring woman, Shadowing the Promise Land
A duchess lost in fiction in love with a Strangers moon
Now Truth is my destination, Time will be forgotten soon…
Photo by GEORGE DESIPRIS
The ocean’s wind catches each regret, each sin, and sorrow throwing it into the eternity of a perfect God to be forever forgotten. In the light of the moon a young woman, who thought the stars would stop shining above her found the Maker of the stars and the freedom and love and the lullaby He sang washing over her in waves. So now I am drifting, sailing and it was you who came for me.
On that day when the sun tipped over the edge of the earth and spilled colors like buckets of orange, pink, and violet as a reminder of the power of Holy light. The young woman once ravaged and scarred by guilt and shame found joy in the warmth of The Son. Lifted from the darkness you came for me. You lifted me in your arms and by your own wounds, scars, and stripes you healed me.
This is the heartbeat of God’s love. The fractures, wounds, and scars are remarkably purified like gold after the pain of repentance has done its work making every person precious in His sight transforming us into the Holy wholeness of the Holy One whose image we bear.
In the end are not the scars part of the beauty?
I think Jesus, when we meet him will show us his perfectly mended scars in his human-ness even though He is now glorified. He is always perfect. I think he will say “yes, these scars represent each of you and they are beautiful.”
Photo by Pixabay
I’m not sure I want to be the writer of this page. I know that words can be written and read leaving someone broken or they can leave another someone free...
I want to be light but I am often heavy. That is all on me. It is part of my wiring I suppose.
I am sure of this though. Eden has had not gone. It still is there in the fertile crescent where the four rivers dance down from the mount pouring out the water of life. The Tree of Life still stands in the center its leaves twirl gently in the milk gold sunshine that never sets.
While it is true that no unredeemed human can yet re-enter its guarded gate there is an unspoken melody on the breeze that gently sings “oh but man and woman shall return and He, the King of glory will bring them in! No more tears will be shed, no more sin and dread shall darken the days of Eden the way it was…”
For the Lord our God is One!
See the Prince of Peace he walks among the trees. The evil fruit banished and gone forevermore and all God’s children are home! I hope these words find you free and light but if they find you heavy do not fear because Jesus is all about light and freedom. You are invited to himself just the way you are.
Photo by Rodolfo Clix
Time is not a matter here
in the midnight hour
I sing to you my love song
though it be torn and tattered
I see the deep wells of wonder
of both your Love and Light
To such will be the Way of things
beneath the looming night
Come endure the Midnight hour
where language has no name
Where Hope and Hardship mingle
With your Faithfulness and Grace
Photo by Pixabay
She was pulled into the boxcar with a burning jerk to her arms with dogs barking from behind. She could not think a straight thought in her head so she must be losing her mind.
Just a day ago she was laughing and dancing and playing in the sun. The evening brought screaming and raping now her parents are gone.
Suddenly jostled from a dream where she was safe and warm. The dead dark of night brought more cries of agony raining down like a storm.
Now she is ordered to walk into the woods and not speak to anyone. She focuses her eyes on her old sturdy shoes the tops of them all covered in blood and urine.
She can hear her Father’s voice so gentle and kind. Reminding her not to fear the hard path for God is on her side.
“He will not ever leave you nor forsake you nor will he disregard your state. He provides you with strong shoes to walk the hard path.”
Photo by Egor Kamelev
I have been “leaning into” the book called The Gospel According to Job or about three years…the subject of suffering is a hot bed of emotions in the human realm. The one million light bulbs that go off in my head like some crazy paparazzi event when I contemplate truly suffering usually sends me into an endorphin crisis. Some have said to me “well, if you had more faith…blah blah blah…” ( God is the one who gives faith and I Love that. He will measure out to me the Faith and Grace and Mercy I need from his very own hand he gives it to me).
I am seeing more clearly what is the heart of Job. He has become a friend to me. He is what is called a “type” of Jesus (foretold in the Ancient Testament). Job had unmerited suffering put upon him. It was allowed by God. (This right here will upset many of you but I believe God can allow whatever he sees best to befall anyone. I believe this because I know that God is more Good and more wild and transcendent and more terrifyingly wonderful than I have ever even begun to know!!!) Job was a man who pleased God yet lost all his family and home. All of his children in one day…cannot even go there!
Anyway I am saying all of that to say the story of Job is not about suffering in the way I always use to think, even though suffering is well displayed in its pages. The story of Job is that for him the worst thing that could ever happen was that he might lose his Peace with God…think about that.
Photo by Rhiannon Stone
Sun flowers turn their face toward the sun everyday of summer…
The ocean is pulled and pushed by the tide without missing a beat…
With each succeeding step I take in this slow dance I see less brambles and thorns and more rich colored roses…
I see bright green leaves of trees and the glorious redness of an apple…
The high meadow mountain where the four rivers flow is getting closer and closer…
The lushness of Eden beckons and sings with the swaying pines…
The scent of jasmine and wisteria mingle through the air…
There is a warm wind that brings the warmth of summer yet I can see the harvest of fall and the daffodils and green of spring all at the same time…
The song of the rivers sing a Holy melody and I dance slowly on…
And oh such music, I can hear it so clearly in the laughter of children and the cries of the hurting…
Each step of this slow dance feels exactly right and I know I am dancing home…
I truly love my daughter’s generation (thirty somethings), well I don’t love all of their music (I can’t believe I am my parents)…I have enormous respect for their mantra…”I don’t have all the answers and neither do you.” I love how they can smell a “fake of any kind” within seconds! They live in a culture that isn’t buying into Christian consumerism, they are not for sale. They do not want to be entertained at Church (God knows there is enough entertainment in social media). They want to know God, experience His real presence and find worship in their own hearts that is not manufactured for one day a week on a stage. I just love that! I will say it absolutely terrifies me as well. The shift in our world to “postmodernism” makes me feel like I am floating in slow motion in water through a world I recognized but it is slipping away. Part of this exhilarates me and part of it so uncomfortable that my heart races, I am anxious, and will wake in the middle of the night and pray. I pray that they won’t throw the baby out with the bath water in some kind of reverse Dogma.
This tension is a must in the relationships of life. The relationship with the God who made us right down to the people who love us for better or worse. The thing is Jesus and “tension” go hand in hand. If we study his life we will see that His “absolutes” were few but man were they TENSE! So simple yet so “in your face”…”hear the word of the Father and do it and love others and forgive everyone else”…are you kidding me?
God intensely loves my children’s generation. No one wants more for our kids than God does! I believe that. For me it is evident in the women my girls have become in spite of me. Their grace and graciousness continue to astound me.
So when I feel alien in a postmodern world I look at them. At the Jesus in them and I take a deep breath and I know that Jesus made a way for every generation to find Him, to come to Him, and that through Him they will find the presence of God’s peace. So when I am not panicking or praying I am cheering them on with all my heart, my love, and my being to “press on” to love Jesus, love others and forgive all.
Photo by Ayu Shaky
You were fascinated by my turnings
Women chatter in the market place
I’ve now gone further than your worries
See the lines upon my face?
I need solitude to write I said
I’m lacking the academic brain
It’s so hard not to steal the moments
before they fly off into space.
I speak your promises back to you oh God
Reversing Thunder by your Holy Word!
There is no other Truth to stand on
this sums up all I’ve learned!
Jill Autrey Dorman 