Sample litany—
I cannot generate my own oxygen or rescue plan
The world is a victim of sin and rebellion on a path of steady entropy and eventual destruction
Jesus is my sure Rescuer
I need him for both oxygen and Salvation
His word, his way—his life is fully available to me through the Bible and the power of the Holy Spirit
I need to give him my time and attention and relinquish the illusion of autonomy.
I need to obey his injunction to
“(Take up your cross and)
Follow Me!”
We have to rethink light
not limited by our limits—rods, cones, our presbyopic narrowing
The purple in the sky, there
Regardless of “us”
Ghosts in the peripheral
surround nonetheless
Perhaps we will be judged by them
So great a cloud of witnesses
The invisible spectrum always at our shoulders
Dust to dust
eternity
Scattering
in all direction
I once knew a brave and beloved person who lived in a cardboard house.
I was recently reminded of her
Because I heard a story about a
1. Tea party
2. Bunco game
3. Bible study
4. All of the above
Where a group of humans made a single human feel
The terrible sadness of Loss
As though a person could be rendered inert through the impulse of “two or more gathered in my name”
That is the part I marvel over as I stare into the eyes of the Lonely Lamb
As the wolves do
What wolves do
When donkeys aren’t around
It has happened several times now—so many that
Accident is impossible
1. A flock of leaves flew upward
Featherweights in unison
Flight
2. Flurry of them cascading downward in a strong wind (like)
Snowflakes in a storm
And three—
a solitary leaf
Even with the horizon becomes
A giant butterfly? A small bird?
Flying, not falling, defiant of physics and limitations
Each sent by the Holy Wind
Who goes where he wills
And will let the leaves speak for him when we
fall silent.
https://coddy.tech/tools/morse-code-translator
A room full of high school students hammer away on electric typewriters
The bride sews her wedding garment-/stitch by stitch, pearl by pearl
The staccato sound of teletype bleats out an insistent warning
We do not hear or comprehend
In the background, in a barely audible whisper
The voice of God sends out
A message for the perishing hope and admonition
About a man born in a manger
The Word took on flesh and dwelt among us…
Until all that is left is
Him
Sure they are cute now
Or you can try to convince yourself that through the lens of
both your my-and presby-opias
As long as you feed them, they will grow
As the house morphs around them
Into a fitting habitat for dragons,
Household or otherwise
I can see the little boy at least in pictures
Remember the intensity of his convictions
Not just about his uncut hair
More than that
some heroes were totally still there
When others had definitely been lost
What room is there in cartoon grief for the stolid belief in resurrection?
“We thought we had lost you…“
Strange to acknowledge the terrible loneliness
Touching the dying
Eschewing even the husk of the vine
I miss each of the children
Wish I could do something as simple as shave my head to
Bring them all back.
Numbers 6
Numbers 6:1-9 KJV
[1] And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, [2] Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the Lord : [3] He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried. [4] All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk. [5] All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto the Lord, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. [6] All the days that he separateth himself unto the Lord he shall come at no dead body. [7] He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die: because the consecration of his God is upon his head. [8] All the days of his separation he is holy unto the Lord. [9] And if any man die very suddenly by him, and he hath defiled the head of his consecration; then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing, on the seventh day shall he shave it.
Despite the short-term memory loss
Despite the IV sedative and anesthesia
I see the girl on the operating table, hear the steady whir of the electric clippers
Just the top and one side
Shorn with a surgical precision and harvested as a keepsake for the girl
Where the sound of the drill would soon follow
leaving a stigma, a hole
This operation one part carpentry and one part telemetry
She lived
And learned speak for the dead.
They rise at dawn
Balloon
Device
Telemetry
Parachute
Gas lighter than air
Pulls them
Up
And
Up
And up
Like a crazy near earth skydiver
Waiting for the moment when it all changes
The day
We become the weather balloons
Held aloft by the light
And the oil in our lamps
And the voice of the Bridegroom
We will
Rise
Whether permitting….
Matthew 16:1-3 KJV
[1] The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven. [2] He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. [3] And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
