Come In!

Spinning, digital photo collage, C. Flores

So I'm continuing on my quest to childlike faith, a joyful faith. My daughter is an inspiration and helps me to remember what faith and joy really look like. Do I believe God really exists, knows me, and even loves me dearly? This is what God said. After all, this kind of faith is the way we actually get to know God and meet Him as he truly is - our Father.

Please take a second look, peer into the garden, crack open the Book one more time... before you make up your mind that there isn't anyone there.

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Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. - Matthew 7:7

What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived — the things God has prepared for those who love him.
- 1 Corinthians 2:9

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
- Luke 18:16-17

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Here You Are

My little spirit spins with you -
oh how you make me dance,
but I must look only silly,
like a little girl twirling,
singing songs no one understands.

Why can't they see you,
oh my constant friend?
Have they stopped seeing,
stopped their singing,
like children too old to pretend?

But here you are where you've always been,
waiting for your children to come running in,

singing and dancing and clapping their hands,
for their father, their brother, the Son of Man,

dressed in love, grace and hymns from Heaven
into this most lovely and eternal garden of Eden.
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Sweet Spring!

The Flowers Jessie Willcox-Smith

You sprinkle the day with light
like a confectioner with sugar
your sweet melodies birds recite
and the blossoms your fingers uncover.

What is this array
but a bouquet of your arranging?
What is the soft form of my heart
but a confection or your own shaping?

This your menagerie of living things
too delicate to last and too pretty to eat,
but yet a shame not to savor
delicacies so sweet...

from poem The Sweetness of Promise

...


It is a land the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end. So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul—  then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil. I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.

Deuteronomy 11:12-15  NIV





 

Happy As Kings

Gyo Fujikawa, The Little Land

Happy Thought

The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings.

- Robert Louis Stevenson from A Child's Garden of Verses

I love the simplicity of this short poem. Stevenson wrote so many wonderful poems to the sensibility of a child. My friend, Nancy Dauterman, first introduced me to Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses when I helped teach in her Kindergarten classroom. Those poems and her sweet Kindergarten class were instrumental in reuniting me with my own child heart. I highly recommend this book to all children and their parents. The illustration here is from my daughter's own copy illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa. It's wonderful.

I can't help but find a parallel between Stevenson's words and the way God calls us his children, while also calling us heirs to his own kingdom. Is that amazing? God himself has written to us as a father writes to his own children, hoping we'll read as the very children he knew, trusting and seeking - all the while pouring out his unexplainable blessing around us - as we pass by unaware.

Wake up little children! Let's be kings again!


This is my version.

Afternoon

I strolled the afternoon
like a child through a mansion.
I peered down burnished avenues
like corridors flocked and brassen.

I reveled in every jewel I found
like an orphan playing a prince,
as if every silvery sight and sound
was sealed in my inheritance.

I skipped through tree-lined vaults
laden with tender gold medallions,
knowing the treasures here where I walk
are stored forever in Heaven by the thousands.

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For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

Romans 1:20

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Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

Romans 8:17-21

Warriors of Light

Warrior of Light, Christiane Flores 2015

My dear brothers and sisters...

Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared. In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Ephesians 6:14-17

Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”
John 8:12

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Warrior of Light

Golden warrior,
at the foot of an ashen fortress,
you are a flame
waging light into an abyss.

Your glowing wake
brands a narrow path,
through long shadows
of towers lost and rivers black.

You blaze a plated shield
forged in light and faith,
and flanked on your shoulders
are wings cast in fate.

Your aureate armor
submerged in soot and mire,
never bares mar or tarnish
but purification by fire.

Your guide is a fiery sword
blazing into the night,
and your heart, carved in ore
weighs the lives lost from light.

What hearts will you ignite
as embers from the dark debris?
What stray children of your king
will you uncover and set free?

Rise and Shine

This Little Light, Christiane Flores 2015

This Year

This year I decided not to give up our Christmas tree

and pack up all its splendor into a box.

Instead I thought it might be worth keeping

such a lovely thing shining on.

So I found a lampstand more worthy of its light
a hilltop better fitting its rich display
and not always found by earthly sight,
but burning in hearts night and day.

And so it became adorned,
a life like a humble evergreen,
with hands outspread to be warmed
by the light of love they were bearing.

Words were like ornaments to hang
sparkling with joy and sweetness
ringing little songs that faithful shepherds sang
celebrating God's power and meekness.

Happy new year to you, my dear
the child who knew there had to be
some way to have Christmas each day of the year,
a life lit up like a Christmas tree.

::

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."
Matthew 5:14 

“Arise, shine, for your light has come,
    and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth
    and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the Lord rises upon you
    and his glory appears over you.
Nations will come to your light,
    and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
Isaiah 60:1-3 

Season of the Dreamer

I'm sure most of us notice the signs of the coming season - some more than others - depending on where we live. Here in California, it's the season that's just beginning to peak through the clouds and reveal its spindly branches. It's not the Christmas or Holiday season, though that is its shining feature. It's the season of Winter and all that it carries with it. I saw a sky like this one pictured, a few Winters ago, and it caused me to notice other beautiful new things all around me. More than the clouds taking shape in the sky, I saw that nature was starting to change its own decor the way we deck our halls. Around here one has to look for these changes a little more closely. It's subtle. It doesn't come pouring down from Heaven in snowy white splendor. 

This is a special time of year in which so many cultures celebrate light. How fitting. We miss those long bright days on the darkest ones. Now that we're almost upon that shortest and darkest day of the year, I think it's good to think about the metaphor we are presented with. (The sun is down by 5 o'clock now. So we have the time.) We experience this cycle of life in every stage: night and day, Summer and Winter, life and death, waking and sleeping. So here were are in the evening, knowing that morning is on the other side of the hill and Spring is around the corner. Let's light some candles, sing a lullaby or a Christmas carol, and watch the lights twinkle upon the trees. 

We must then remember that we're not the ones changing out these decorations, or making the sun go up or down. We are a special feature in this scenery, spectators to a majesty we cannot conceive, the objects of a creator's dream. It's just too beautiful and orderly for me to think of it any other way. Let's enjoy this season in humble wonder, as we are the dear children being tucked into bed. I hope that when we close our eyes, we can all rest assured that we know the one watching over us.

Dream of Winter

Rippled opaline sky,
burning with silver,
we are painted you and I,
by the One who dreamed of Winter.

Chiseled amethyst limbs,
brushed with sterling,
we are painted by His sky,
in the low color of seasons turning.

Dappled jet lane,
gilded with light,
we are glittered you and I,
by the One slowly dimming the light.

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"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better."
- Albert Einstein

"Whoever wants to know something about me – as an artist which alone is significant – they should look attentively at my pictures and there seek to recognize what I am and what I want."
- Gustav Klimt 

"Have you ever commanded the morning to appear
    and caused the dawn to rise in the east?
Have you made daylight spread to the ends of the earth,
    to bring an end to the night’s wickedness?
As the light approaches,
    the earth takes shape like clay pressed beneath a seal;
    it is robed in brilliant colors."
- God to Job, Job 12-14 

“Where does light come from,
    and where does darkness go?
Can you take each to its home?
    Do you know how to get there?
But of course you know all this!
For you were born before it was all created,
    and you are so very experienced!"
“Have you visited the storehouses of the snow
    or seen the storehouses of hail?
²³ (I have reserved them as weapons for the time of trouble,
    for the day of battle and war.)
²⁴ Where is the path to the source of light?
    Where is the home of the east wind?"
- God to Job, Job 19-24 

In peace I will lie down and sleep,
    for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe."
- Psalm 4:8

Your Gift To Bring

Little Drummer Boy 2009 Jon Baldwin Art

What do our lives spell out - for the people around us, for the generations that will remember us? Do they spell out something that can reach beyond us and make a difference in those lives? Our lives, especially when summed up at the end, will be a tribute to something, to someone - an accomplishment, a contribution, a cause, a God.

Maybe you feel you have nothing to contribute. Well, maybe this will help. I volunteered to sing with some other women at an event at church. Before the event, I was a little bit of a wreck. Upon expressing how insecure I was about my abilities, my friend Sue, replied, "Just think of the Little Drummer Boy." That helped me. So no matter how meager, this is "my gift to bring".

What is your gift to bring? What is your tribute? And who is it to?

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My Tribute

This is my cathedral,
scribbled lines like climbing spires,
crying out like a mouth of marble,
dear Lord, hear our prayers.

This is my cry in the wilderness,
a love letter like an echo,
a messenger in the darkness,
dying before it will let go.

This is my sacrifice,
a song like a broken heart,
praising God in the highest,
from a wrinkled paper altar.

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tribute
- a gift, testimonial, compliment, or the like, given as due or in acknowledgment of gratitude or esteem.