crumbs from His table
Prayers, poems, and essays feasting on scraps of God's grace
Tuesday, January 31, 2023
Hope Coming
Monday, January 23, 2023
Hope Deferred (Or Not)
Amaryllis bud rising |
“Be strong, and let your heart be courageous,
all you who put your hope in the Lord.”
Psalms 31:24 CSB
“Now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you.”
Psalms 39:7 CSB
After the splendor of the apple-blossom amaryllis at the beginning of 2021, the opportunity somehow escaped me to purchase an amaryllis to watch indoors in the winter of 2021-2022. I missed it.
Consequently, after this past Thanksgiving I made certain to obtain one for the current winter. After some characteristic dithering, I decided on another apple-blossom bulb . Amore plants them in the garden after their indoor blooms are spent,. This way the other one will have a companion.
One challenge we have had with our amaryllis blooms is that they become top-heavy and unstable. Some specially designed stakes helped, but this year I decided to try a glass bulb planter with a bulbous lower cavity one fills with water. The elongated top, I reasoned, might provide more support for the long stem.
Never having planted anything without soil or some sort of potting medium, I read the directions several times and paid oh-so-close attention to getting the water level just right.
I waited perhaps a fortnight and checked it. No change. Not even a hint of roots.
Saturday, January 14, 2023
Hope Is {Looking Ahead}
Saturday, December 31, 2022
The Year of Joy {Looking Back}
In this my year of joy, I have relearned that the Lord Himself is the only sure and certain joy; that joy must be fought for by seeking His face in the Scriptures and prayer, in Christian friendships and in Creation. He has kindly sent me tokens of joy and providence in some of the hardest moments of 2022, and there were many. (Books, birds, and butterflies provided some of them, as you may expect.)
Below are some of the best quotes I’ve collected on joy or which felt adjacent to it. (It has been my habit for some years to watch for and gather up occurrences of my year’s focal word in my reading.) As you will see, Christian joy is often discovered in the midst of sorrow and through sorrow (not in opposition to it).
Monday, December 26, 2022
Christmas Lovelight
Lord of light,
Lord of love,
Who rested not content in darkless, unblemished, eternal glory
Without the people You created:
People who traded Your bright fellowship for the darkling bondage of iniquity.
In Christmastide we remember and celebrate
The mystery of infinite, omniscient, omnipotent Deity
Weaving Himself into double helix,
Pouring Himself into a single human cell
In the confines of a virgin's womb.
While no less God,
You took upon Yourself the finitude of human form,
The patience of gestation,
The trauma of birth in blood and water.
Your voice--which shatters cedars and shakes wilderness,
stripping forests bare in power and splendor--
Cried out, hungrily inhaling the oxygen You spoke into being.
You, Savior, submitted to swaddling;
In humility, You gave Yourself to be diapered, held, rocked.
You who hold up the world by the Word of Your power
Condescended to months unable to hold up Your own head,
Immortal clothed in epidermis of mortality.
And why?
For love of Your enemies,
Sinners, rebels, reprobates,
Who deserve only wrath.
You entered our world,
Into every aspect of humanity but sin,
Lived the righteous life we could not,
Died the criminal's death we deserved,
Atoned for sin,
Conquered death,
Begat us to a living hope
Through Your resurrection from the dead.
Being fully human, You were a suitable substitute for scoundrel sinners
Such as I.
Being fully God, You were a sufficient substitute for all sinners
Who call on You in faith
(Such as I),
Trusting in Your name,
Jesus,
Savior,
Anointed One.
You took up our tears that we might find joy.
You took up our mourning that we might dance.
You took up our sickness that we might be whole.
You took up our hunger that we might be satiated.
You took up our sins that we might wear the garb of Your righteousness.
You took our judgment that we might receive grace.
You laid aside the glory of Sonship that children of wrath might be adopted sons of the Most High.
You enfleshed the Old Covenant and inaugurated the New,
Implanting new hearts that beat the rhythm of Your law.
Christ, our Passover, You gave Yourself for us
As priest and sacrifice.
Grant us grace to walk in forgiven freedom
Under the bright shelter of Your love and mercy,
Peace and grace,
Loving You who first loved us
And loved us to the end.
All praise to You, King Jesus,
For coming to shatter our darkness with Your sunrise from on high.
Come soon, Lord Jesus.
Amen.