Posts Tagged: ‘devotional’

THE TEARS OF CALVARY

09/06/2011 Posted by mindsinger

 

I felt the hand of God and yet I turned away.

I felt his presence there at break of day.

I heard him call to me, but in my humanity,

I turned away.

 

And yet he still remained as I walked away;

with his hand outstretched to me.

And though I did not see the tears of Calvary

he wept them once again for me!

 

I walked through troubled days in restless wandering.

My soul could not find rest in earthly things.

My weary heart cried out for answers to life’s pain.

And I sang the songs of humanity.

 

Out of my lostness came the cry of Adam’s race.

I sang their cold despair with tears upon my face.

Then, with gentle hands, he drew me back to him.

Praise be to God, for I am home again!

 

Yes, he still remains as we walk away;

with hands outstretched to you and me.

And though we do not see the tears of Calvary,

he weeps them once again for you and  me!

 

c.2001 Donna Swanson

In the Woods

07/28/2011 Posted by mindsinger

 



I can hear the spring wind building before I feel the freshening breeze upon my face.  It stirs the trees in the orchard and sends before itself a million soft sighings.  And, as it passes on, I sit in the calm once again even as I hear it moving on to ruffle yet another tree-clad hillside.
I feel the wind, I hear it, But I don’t know its origin or its destination. Why, then, must I labor so diligently to understand God’s Spirit which he tells me to accept as freely and as innocently as a child free in the springtime? Why should I fear the ceasing of words when it was not I but the Spirit who caused their appearance?
O Father, make me as free, as trusting, and as pliant as the tall sycamore swaying gently in the caressing wind!  Standing there on the creek bank, its roots exposed by years of springtime flooding, it offers me its gift of hope.  Help me to remember it when my own floods come.  Or when the soft breezes of the spirit become gales of sorrow or pain.
It is beautiful here.  No sound but the busy scurrying of last year’s leaves as they tumble and dance before the wind.  The trees, bare of leaves, create their own beauty as each stands in the uniqueness of its construction.
And through it all flows the living water.  The soft sound of its voice soothes my mind and stills my soul.  And I rise renewed.  Was it so with you, Jesus?  Is that why you withdrew to those wilderness mountains?

Exceprt from SPLINTERS OF LIGHT c.2011 by Donna Swanson

http://mindsinger.com/book-store/splinters-of-light-book/

OTHER WORLD

07/18/2011 Posted by mindsinger

 

There is a world we do not see,

flowing round us endlessly.

It fair would take our breath away

if eyes beheld its constant day.

A world of light and purity,

of music’s proud humility.

 

There, truth, its mighty strength unfurled,

sends glimmers to its sister world.

And mortals, seeking unaware,

perceive it dimly everywhere.

 

“So near!  So near!” our spirits cry

when, searching with unfettered eye,

of grief or joy, we catch a gleam,

a dazzling, tantalizing beam;

as from a distilled purity

whose radiance damns obscurity.

 

Until, with mind and heart ablaze

we’re left to mark our earthly days

by pledging deep fraternity

with those who shape eternity.

 

c.2011, Donna Swanson, from Splinters of Light