Baby Birds

“I will love them freely…

    They shall blossom…

    They shall flourish…

    They shall blossom…

(Hosea 14, selected verses. Read entire chapter here.)

 

One left the nest a decade ago

and now cares for a nest of her own.

One is seeking the rise to wisdom and experience

and finds that the winds can carry you

down as well as up…left as well as right.

One continues the flight that only those

who wear the feathers of a teen

can truly understand.

 

I love them freely. I know I do.

I hope they hear my songs.

I dream their dreams.

I hope only the best.

I pray –

not for settled skies…

but for safe passage, nonetheless.

I offer…my self, my love, and shelter from the storms.

 

I watch my baby birds as closely as they allow.

I dream

of the songs they will sing…

        the vistas they will see…

the change they will bring through the

simple beating of their wings.

 

I watch and pray and be – a Dad.

 

God speaks to me and sighs,

“I know…I know.”

 

Inspired by three of the loves of my life as I listened to www.pray-as-you-go.org.

 

My Home Among the Hills

wpid-PaperArtist_2014-03-24_11-00-46.jpegBased on Luke 4:24-30

Inspired by http://www.pray-as-you-go.org

Yeah, I am a child of the mountains –
a “West-By-God-Virginian.”

But why do I build my city on a hill?

Is it the place where I best see –
the danger coming
the glorious sunrise
the gathering storms
the grandest views of creation?

Or is it just the place
where even when I don’t feel safe…

I can force those who assail
my foundation
my beliefs
my worldview
to the edge of a precipice
where they can view their doom.

I build my city on a hill
but I often forget.

The cliff is not there for my enemies
or the prophets who unsettle me.
It is there for me…
to shout until the Word echoes
to step off…
to fail, to fall, and to flail.

And to find myself
in the very hand of God.

an abandoned vessel

cropped-img_2234-e1353720642505an abandoned vessel

An empty water jar bakes in the heat
in a place where people are called
“sin-filled.”
My Lord sits beside it,
tracing his finger around the rim.

I join the other followers as we come to him with our food.

Someone gave him something to eat?
Someone gave him something to drink?
Surely not.
Not here.

We are among those people.

Yet Jesus says he does not thirst.
Yet Jesus says he is full.

Why do I focus upon my definitions?

 Of hunger…
Of thirst…
Of those who are sinful…

My Lord sits by the edge of a bottomless well
tracing his finger
along the edge
of abandoned definitions.

Based upon John 4:5-42

Inspired by www.pray-as-you-go.org for March 22/23, 2014

Mystery of Prayer

(Inspired by March 11, 2014 www.pray-as-you-go.com and Matthew 6:5-14.)

thinking_rfid-e1337372097366

I am alone, yet not by myself.
Words rattle in my mind and fall into the very heart
of the One who Created, Is Creating, and Will Recreate.

Joy!
God is near always:
Jesus sits with me in prayer…
Labors in my work…
Grins when I am laughing…
Joins me in my struggles…
Nods in agreement as I forgive…
Cavorts with me in play…
Sighs with me in hunger…
Touches me as I tenderly reach out to my lover…
Cries at my frustration…
Joy!

The mystery of prayer?
The Kingdom will be found in one –
praying in an empty room,
yet never, never, alone.

On Lent

Stone into Bread
Yep… that would be my choice.

Me.

I want it to be all about me.
Caring for my hunger
Miracles that I desire
A place for me in the Kingdom

Forty days
Forty nights

He will rely upon God alone.
He will unveil God’s glory.
He will enter a Kingdom of servant humility.

Me?
He invites to follow… or not to follow.
Forty days – Forty nights.
Step by aching step.