A Prayer When You Don’t Know What to Pray

 

Listen to me read the audio file

Click here to listen to me praying this post over you.

“Lord,

I know not what I ought to ask of Thee;

Thou only knowest what I need:

Thou lovest me better than I know how to love myself.

O Father! Give to Thy child that which he himself knows not how to ask.

I dare not ask for crosses or consolations,

I simply present myself before Thee,

I open my heart to Thee.

Behold my needs which I know not myself;

See and do according to Thy tender mercy.

Smite or heal; depress me or raise me up;

I adore all Thy purposes without knowing them;

I am silent; I offer myself in sacrifice;

I yield myself to Thee;

I would have no other desire than to accomplish Thy will.

Teach me to pray. 

Pray Thyself in me.

Amen.”

~François de la Mothe Fénelon (1651-1715)

Tenderhearted Savior {A Prayer}

Listen to me read this post:

Harvest Moon, September 2023

Unidentified garden plant

Moonflower and honeybee

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, ventral wings fully open

Tenderhearted Savior,

Rich in mercy and inexhaustible in grace,

We come before you today with full hearts and empty hands:

Pour your strengthening love into our hearts

And your loving strength into our hands.

Deal gently with our infirmities;

Grant wisdom for our perplexities;

Comfort us in all adversity;

Come alongside us in every difficulty.

Hear and answer our prayers even when we have no words, only tears.

When we are in darkness, let Your light shine brighter.

When we are in pain, let Your love be nearer.

Meet us at the point of our deepest needs today,

For Your glory and our good,

In Jesus' name. Amen.

The prayer as downloadable image, white print against backdrop of flaming sunrise

(Update: Audio has now been added to "The Lord Is Peace" also.)

Catalog of Fragile Beauties

Listen to me read this post:

Male ruby-throated hummingbird at feeder in our back garden

Male ruby-throated hummingbird at feeder in our back garden

Female ruby-throated hummingbird at our feeder

The LORD Is Peace

Listen to me read this post:

Lake Tawakoni from the southern shore

A path through tall trees in Lake Tawakoni State Park

Treetops and sky, Lake Tawakoni State Park

Another view of Lake Tawakoni, from the southwestern shore on a clear day

The susurration of trees and lapping of waves

Whisper in antiphon:

YAHWEH Shalom,

YAHWEH Shalom,

The Lord is peace,

The Lord strengthens His people with peace.

The sunflowers lean forward,

In eager expectation awaiting in hope 

The Great Day of the rising

Of the Sun of Righteousness

With healing in His wings.

(Come soon, Lord Jesus.)

Osprey perched in bare tree branches

The osprey's plaintive cry

Laments the groaning bondage of creation now.

The buzzards dance attendance on the last enemy,

Mortally wounded, defanged,

Yet still destroying in death's death throes.

Black and white warbler foraging for insects

Painted bunting in tree branch

Wordlessly, buntings and warblers, cardinals and wrens

Intone their unabashed, unceasing melody of hope

In the not yet:

Prayers are heard,

Promises true,

Prince of Peace coming;

The kingdom of this world

Will become the kingdom of our Lord,

And He shall reign forever.

Weeping will pass.

Joy will come.

The rattling cicadas beat time with their wings,

Counting down the days till deliverance

From corruption to decay.

Giant swallowtail butterfly, ventral wings

Giant swallowtail, dorsal wing

The fluttering swallowtail sips nectar,

So delicately her blooming perch barely moves.

In her partaking of the cup the Lord has filled,

She moves on, scattering with fecund prodigality

Grace for future blooms.

Trees in deep shade with Lake Tawakoni in background

A spider perches upside down in its web, which looks iridescent in the morning light

A fawn looks straight at the camera from the shelter of green trees

The trees of the field lift holy hands to heaven,

Singing for joy before the Lord,

Before He comes

Before He comes

To judge the earth in righteousness.

The nations rage;

The peoples plot and scheme,

But the susurration of trees and lapping of waves,

Yet sing, "The LORD is peace."

On Waking After a Storm {A Poem}

We are fine. There have been a few severe storms in our area and more elsewhere in America’s Tornado Alley. Our property has not been damaged so far this year, but we have experienced that in the past. This poem came from memory and empathy. I didn’t want kind Crumbles to worry needlessly  ❤️‍🩹

 

The morning after the tempest

Reminds me of waking from surgery.

Do the trees still have all their limbs?

Are they stable on their feet

Or do they need a caution-tape bracelet

Warning, “Fall risk?”

Are the eyes of our home intact or shattered?

Is its crown shingled or scalped?

Are the neurons of the power grid still firing,

Or has a lightning stroke cut off

Extremities of neighborhoods from the power station,

Impairing communication and mobility,

Disabling normal work?

Is the lifeblood of clean water still pumping

Through PVC arteries and cast-iron veins

Into capillaries of household fixtures?

The morning after storms,

The numbness of adrenaline anesthetic subsides,

Pins and needles of anxiety pricking the edges of my thoughts,

Or pain roaring back, seizing minds in its grip.

We assess the damage,

Bandage wounded homes,

Prepare dead trees for the fire,

Set about the hard work of recovery and repair,

Grief and lamentation, tallying losses, claiming insurance,

Learning what normal looks like now.

 

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.

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).

The Peace of Letting Go

 “And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭1‬:‭38‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

At the end of the first week of Advent,

I escaped home duties and cacophony of power tools

For the quiet delight of the path and the trees, gorgeous

With the improvident luminosity of hope.

The membrane of severance,

As impermeable as stainless steel,

Exiles the leaves from the life of the tree,

This death necessary to protect the new life within,

Wherein dwells hope.

Behold the beauty of their surrender:

Maroon, plum, saffron, cerise,

Gold worthy of Solomon’s temple,

The forest green of the junipers,

The gnarled hands of live oaks reaching heavenward,

Palms open.

With Mary the virgin,

They accept what Providence appoints:

“Let it be to me according to your word.”

How Happy We Would Be

 Written ~2002 when my family went to a baseball game and chronic illness kept me home with my dog

           

Once there was a little Johnny Jump-up with a gold and violet face. All day long he hung his head and sighed, “Oh me, oh my. Oh my, oh me. If only I were tall and elegant like the rose, how happy I would be!”

On a trellis nearby grew a tall, slender climbing rose with petals like the flush of a baby’s cheek. All day long she hung her head and sighed, “Oh me, oh my. Oh my, oh me. If only I were strong and useful like the apple tree, how happy I would be.”

Overhead arched the strong limbs of the apple tree, laden with sweet red fruit. All day long he drooped his branches and sighed, “Oh me, oh my. Oh my, oh me. If only I had a cozy nest and a family to love like the robin, how happy I would be.”

In its branches lived a little robin redbreast, hovering over her nest of speckled blue eggs. All day long she hung her head and sighed, “Oh me, oh my. Oh my, oh me. If only I were free to soar into the sky like the eagle, how happy I would be.”

Aloft soared the eagle, alone and splendid. All day long he hung his head and sighed, “Oh me, oh my. Oh my, oh me. If only I could fly into heaven itself like the angels, how happy I would be.”

In the heavens themselves, the angels went about serving God and His children among men. One sad angel hung his head and sighed, “Oh me, oh my. Oh my, oh me. If only I could reign like God, with all things serving me, how happy I would be!”



“O foolish, rebel creature!” said God. “There is no God but Me. Away with you into the outer darkness!”

“As for you, silly eagle, “said the Lord, “If you flew into heaven, who would show the new strength I promise and the heights to which I call My people?”

“As for you, little robin,” said the Lord, “If you soared like the eagle, who would show forth My tender care and provision for the smallest of My creatures?”

“As for you, mighty tree,” said the Lord, “If you nested and nurtured like the robin, who would bring forth sweet fruit for the strength and joy of My people?”

“As for you, precious rose,” said the Lord, “If you grew tall and thick like the apple tree, who would show the world both the beauty and the pain of life in this sinful world?”

“As for you, tiny flower,” said the Lord, “If you were tall and elegant like the rose, who would make men smile and forget their worries in the beauty I lavish on the very ground they tread?”

“O foolish creatures! If you would only stop fretting over what you are not and enter into My joy in making you as you are, how happy you would be!”

Debutantes’ Ball: Texas Spring

 

Bradford Pear Blossoms

Texas Bluebonnets

Redbud in Bloom

Daffodil trumpets sound the invitation:

Dowagers Bradford first to arrive,

Proper, benevolent chaperones in their lacy caps.

Belles in blue bonnets crowd the dance floor,

Shy primroses blushing in their shadows.

Purple-haired redbuds shake their heads in dismay:

Crazy young-uns,

Flaunting their newfangled fashions

As though winter’s shabbiness

Had never been.