Cold Joy

Going through some old files, I stumbled on this little poem I wrote about wintertime. May it bless someone, as I share it below.

The continuation of the study on the Beatitudes with regard to humility, is forth coming. I just had a good friend pass away, placing unexpected demands upon my time, for now.

 

The following is my last tweet announcing the death of my friend, and my grief.

“I need strength as I mourn the passing of a close friend who sat in my class at church. It’s things left undone that bring the sharpest pain. Yet, one of my last conversations with Jeff was about the great value of our friendship—I’m thankful for that. Prayers appreciated.”

Cold Joy

The hoary head of Old Man Winter

O’re my shoulder rises

His old gray eyes, the silver skies

His body, crystal white ice prizes

Perfect cleansing proffers he

To all outside their houses

Defecting ones, from coffers free

They froze to death their louses

Tis but a frame of reference
Icicles from the eaves
To free the mind to deference
The inner man to please

For one sees winter’s dismal gray
He hangs his head and mopes
Another sees with beauty gaze
The splendor of new hopes

For every kernel corn to sprout
What it was before must die
A senseless bane, your winter pout
I love those old gray eyes!

Advertisement

Gore & Love Intersect

“The law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Hebrews 9:22 

 

As a boy of ten years, I kept a scrapbook filled with images of lions and tigers hunting. Many of them depicted gory kills. Several decades later, I can still picture the blood covered faces of those vicious beasts. One day my mom happened upon the bloody pictures I’d been saving. Understandably, she became concerned that I might be turning into some sort of twisted, sadistic kid. Blood has a tendency to make us recoil in horror. But my fascination had to do with a compulsion to understand death.

 

Many old Christian hymns include references to the blood that Jesus shed on the cross. Here’s one example—an old favorite performed by some promising musicians. “Nothing But The Blood” 

 

It’s the blood of Christ which cleanses us from our sins. What picture could better display the awful consequences of sin upon the world than grisly blood? God has a good reason for the use of blood in the bible. The blood used in the old sacrificial system of temple worship was a foreshadow of the blood of Christ. Justice demands blood.

When Adam and Eve sinned, it drastically changed mankind—even the earth was changed by a curse. The consequences of sin are exceptionally horrific. “For the wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23a  

And, God says that life is in the blood. “For the life of a creature is in the blood…” Leviticus 17:11a  

And so, spilled blood is synonymous with death—and death is the penalty for sin.

 

As a lasting and stark expression of sin’s staggering cost, God clothed Adam and Eve with dead animal skins. This signified the horrors that the world would experience as a result of sin. Sin brought with it; sickness, war, a curse, slavery to sin, and death for every person since Adam and Eve. Some of the animals changed from herbivores into carnivorous creatures—the images of which I kept in that childhood scrapbook.

 

God has taught me that I should be aghast and horrified at the prospect of sin. It should make me shudder in horror—the same response one would have to a bloody, gruesome death.

But it’s in man’s fallen nature to trivialize sin, rather than to acknowledge its true devastating make-up.

 

Because of God’s awesome love for you and me, Jesus allowed His own blood to be spilled, taking that awful death penalty in our place. “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord,“ (from John 10). The macabre sight of His blood flowing down to puddle in the dust, proclaims God’s monolithic love for you and me. Do you see the importance of the blood? If not, you do not yet understand the way of salvation that God has provided for us. His blood equals love, atonement, propitiation, forgiveness and salvation.

Bloody gore and love intersect at the Cross of Jesus. ©

 

Below is Alan Jackson singing  Are You Washed

 

Bucket List

WANDERLUST

 

I have reached an age where I don’t mind exposing my strangeness, and if you are among my breed of writers, you know how we must bare our souls in print. If, that is, we are to write anything compelling, poignant or interesting. There’s not much nuance to this straight forward piece, and I was in a nostalgic state of mind when I wrote it. I just hope some of you will relate to “Bucket List”.

 

Don’t know how many days until that bucket stubs my toe,

But I know there’s lots of things I want to do before I go.

Though life can be real tough there’s softness in the rain,

Her tender kisses like poetry to strengthen through the pain.

 

Oh the list is mighty long—there’s so much I haven’t seen,

Crystal sands of islands never walked with waters blue and green.

Verdant fields of flowers softly wooing me by name,

Mountain streams with speckled trout and none of them the same.

 

So many unheard songs yet springing from this heart,

Lyrics of the singing soul the honey of life impart.

Horse and human explore together, wind on our grinning faces.

The roar of a Harley engine on scenic roads to all new places.

 

There’s characters to meet, and cultures I must taste,

This stone must keep on rolling, I have no time to waste.

From Atlantic to Pacific, the rivers and lakes between,

My soles are worn with miles, while reveling in what I’ve seen

 

But today the nest is empty, just me

And my half that sits with me,

Like hobbling wires, all strength requires,

And to travel I’m no longer free.

 

Bring out the billows to coax the embers of adventure,

Now I need a blender for cuisine to suit my fitted dentures.

Shod in unbroken squeaky leather, stiff, binding, new,

Nowhere to go, nothing fresh to do but ponder days that flew.

 

Lively prayer boils from my pew,

“Just once more” my intonations,

Let it blaze again—all that’s new,

See, hear, feel and taste, God’s creations

 

The rocker never was my style,

Though sunsets still amaze.

My keyboard speaks of many a mile,

Retelling adventurous days,

And of the God who walks with me,

And of His wondrous ways.

 

Lord knows when that bell shall toll for me,

When God shall toss that bucket

I’m ready for Him to chuck it

Just one kick, and I’ll be free.

 

When An Unsaved Loved One Dies

 

The Lord has whispered in my heart concerning you, and His spirit urges me to pray, and to speak His truth into your difficulties which in turn brings strength and peace. In times like these we can go to our well of hope and strength to bask in the Lord’s glory. Suddenly, our burdens lift under the light of God’s wisdom and loving providence. John Piper offers good perspective for difficult times of grief and loss. He writes, “What we must keep our focus on is that God is just, God is good, and God does not do anything that we will not ultimately approve someday.”

The Lord has affirmed this truth to me in a personal way during a time of deep grief and loss.

 

One day we will look back upon all that was painful in our lives and nod in agreement with God. We will understand that He allowed the right thing to transpire at precisely right time, every time. I am glad that God is so big and mysterious. If I were to understand everything He does and all that He allows to happen, He might not seem quite so big and all knowing.  His infinite immensity is more than our imaginations can fathom. As we focus our thoughts upon God’s love, being absolutely convinced of His faithfulness to always do or allow what is best and good, we cling to the knowledge that we belong to Him. Doing so has often helped me to reconcile difficulties in my mind. Like the old hymn says, “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to Trust and obey,”—It rings from the hearts of those who can say along with Job, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him.”

 

Genesis 18:25 is like the voice of a clarion proclaiming the righteous faithfulness of our majestic Holy One, saying “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” We can rest in the understanding that God will always do precisely what is right and best for His children. He is the only one qualified to judge because He is holy and pure, and He makes judgements on our behalf that display the grandeur of His delectable mercy. But He also has the paternal passion for you and I that elicits tsunami sized waves of compassion and comfort. Let’s lift our voices to our Heavenly Daddy saying, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.  2 Corinthians 1:3-4

 

Go to Him, and rest in His loving arms while trusting that God knows all things and we do not. Trust Him.

 

When Christ returns and gathers you and I to be with Him forever, there will be no sorrow, pain, suffering or tears. This is His promise. How will He accomplish this? I don’t know—nobody does. But what we do know is that God is faithful to keep His word. He will keep all of His glorious promises to you. I know a lot of people, many of whom I do not believe to be saved. I love them, and my finite mind cannot reconcile how I will not be bothered in the least by the fact that they will be in hell while I am in bliss. But I trust God, and I know He can and will keep His promise to wipe every tear from our eyes. Never doubt His love. He has inscribed your name upon His palms. That’s what He said. Rest in the glorious warmth of God’s mighty love, He will comfort you.

In summary, the one thing that will salve our hurting hearts during times of grief and loss is faith in God. Personally, I can feel His love for you in my own heart as He confirms His words of promise that He’s given to us all. Hope is found in Christ Jesus and His love will comfort us.