“That was too short!“
I tell her that it would have been longer if
She had been quiet faster
Will you write another one if I am quiet? She asks
Hard to, nay impossible to,
Say no
Beautiful mockingbird
Origami daughters
Their hair ribbons of color and light like their mothers
Were-are-will be
“nothing shall be impossible”
Wind! Birds! Mockingbird! Mother!
He is
The wind that shakes the trees, lifts the wings
Heals the world
(John chapter 3–all of it!)
Like the scent of evocative perfume
The words lift across
Street in the heart
Of a town named for a long-shot Gospel writer
Words about finding love and fish in the oceans
Surprisingly geographically specific
Pacific Ocean…Indian Ocean
These similes for lost love
A thin, reedy, fearless voice
Neon lights
Somethings are lost in the now
Known only to the One who sees
The not yet the will be
Impossibles come true
One day we will all know
The words
I have not thought about the dark house in years.
There were roads not taken—a house in the woods, a beautiful Victorian with no yard, a dog-less condo.
When you are old you realize how much you did badly
So many regrets.
But not the landlady, not the note, not the conversation between the nice neighbor and the petulant four year old
Defiant on the roof of the porch when she should have been sleeping
Later, much later, she would sleep when she should have been
Defiant on the porch of the house
I pray the time machine prayer
Dear God, permeate the darkness, the loneliness, the horror, the nightmare, the hell the children went through
Let them sing in the courts of the Temple of God
Hosanna, hosanna in the highest!!
https://lifehopeandtruth.com/prophecy/end-times/when-will-jesus-return/
Like a kid waiting for Christmas….
The spooky looking woman stood in the cold storage room of a thousand embryo banks
Wild-haired
Wild-eyed
Barely human
Trying to teach the little ones the answer-
Why should He let us in?
For God so
Loved the
World
That He gave
His One and Only
Begotten Son
That whosoever
Believes in Him (Yeshua)
Should not…
Perish…lose the ticket…be barred from admission…let go of his hand..forget his face…let their pride conquer Truth
But have Eternal Life
The little girl was in her elementary school class when she encountered another student
You a foster?
I’m a foster!
She said it with joy and enthusiasm, like it was secret society of children with super powers
Which it is, actually
You are Superheroic
You are survivors
Thrive
Tell your story
I am here and I am listening
Isaiah 49:19-23 NIV
[19] “Though you were ruined and made desolate and your land laid waste, now you will be too small for your people, and those who devoured you will be far away. [20] The children born during your bereavement will yet say in your hearing, ‘This place is too small for us; give us more space to live in.’ [21] Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who bore me these? I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected. Who brought these up? I was left all alone, but these—where have they come from?’ ” [22] This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “See, I will beckon to the nations, I will lift up my banner to the peoples; they will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their hips. [23] Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground; they will lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who hope in me will not be disappointed. ”
Isaiah 49:22-23 KJV
[22] Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. [23] And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord : for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.
There was a high likelihood that Jesus’ mom was an impoverished widow when he told this “end times” parable.
I like to believe that as the embodiment of Truth with the memory of all human stories fully at his disposal, Jesus never needed to resort to fictional narratives in his parable.
He actually knew Prodigal Sons and Good Samaritans, saw women searching for their lost coins and managers who abhorred the idea of digging or begging.
No one in his parables feels any more real or vivid than this widow.
Her cause is real
Her judge is useless
Her status is negligible
And yet, she prevails because she never gives up
And if she doesn’t give up, then what excuse do we have?
Pound on the gates of Heaven
Ask God for eternal things…
Eternal treasure, like the kind you might find in a field and buy with all you ever had.
Luke 18:1-5 KJV
[1] And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; [2] Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: [3] And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. [4] And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; [5] Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.
Matthew 13:44 KJV
[44] Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.
Jesus knows that his beloved followers will need things to hold onto as they undergo the crushing persecution and ostracism of the first years (300ish) of Christianity.
So he gives them stories—stories so vivid and memorable and simple and beautiful that they can go back again and again to these stories to nourish them in the dark places they will find themselves in as followers of The Way.
The parable are rooms we can live in, stories we can inhabit, people and places and symbols we can return to again and again
As we wait in dark places
For the Return of the King.
I used to live in a country
Where people ate the soul and flesh of both men and animals
Fish dinners too terrible to recount
Little bears with amputated paws
So when you tell me
The living have lost their
Eyes, their lungs, their tongues, their voices, their unborn children
I will believe you
Even though I do not want to
Carrying Light 