The God Experience

How can God be anything but love?  The core of all that is kind and good, the one and only Source of

pure love without blemish, the Author of all life, true beauty, and total unadulterated joy---He is all these things.  Evil exists only to show humanity how much everything and everyone is lacking, much as one dot, one period on a sheet of pure white paper mutilates the whole of it.  

Human beings, on the other hand, can only see and appreciate the awesome immensity and fullness of God because we have been gifted with being created in His image.  No more, less we deceive ourselves into imagining we are God or even godlike.  No less, so that we can see and feel and experience His magnificent love, strength, and care.  We humans are given the royal gift of choice (Shall we, or shall we not choose to love Him back?) so that we can absorb, connect with, and return His love. 

On this Thanksgiving, thanking God for all He is---the grandest and greatest of all experiences,  

Margaret

Notice:   No new post today.  health issue, hopefully minor...

Take care,

Margaret

Why We Need Poetry

The Light of the World : Prose

After several days of cloudiness and rain, the sun came out again today.  What a difference it makes in the world around us.   Sunlight breaks through our window panes.  Its rays light up the bedroom and lift our spirits to start off  the day.  A glance outdoors exposes the deep rich earth tones of autumn leaves and purple shades of late-blooming asters.  Wherever the rays fall, they brighten the surfaces of life's fertile growth, bringing forth the vibrant hues the Creator have given them.  Touching whatever they reach, the sun's fingertips generate warmth and leave a trail of shadows as they gently hug the earth with gentle goodness.

 Where would we be, without sunlight?  What else on earth blesses our souls so nobly and intensely?  Jesus is the light of the world, a world His Father brought into being.   That Father gifted us with that light from out of a great void of nothingness.  What joy it bring us, this heaven-sent light!  Whenever we see sunlight appear, may we never forget what the Source of all light intends for us--pure joy, everlasting love.



The Light of the World:  Poetry

Rays through my window
     kiss the bedsheets,
     create their own stripes and shadows,
     Gladden this groggy heart.

Opening my eyelids,
     they draw me to the windows,
    to magic leaves of mellow gold
     and rusty brown,
     translucent in their splendor. 

Oh, there You are,
     my God, my Lord,
     Lord of all things,
     Lord of everything.

You who give us the rays
     give life,
     brighten life
     to bring us hope 
     and the soul-deep touch   
     of joy abundant.

Take me by the hand,
    guided by Your stardust.    
    Take me where You will
    and never, no never let me go. 


Have a sun-filled day,

Margaret

Crabby People

A short while back I had the opportunity--or perhaps I should call it "misfortune"--to spend some time with a couple of crabby people.  Lest you should rightly call me "self-righteous,"  I will admit here that I too can be crabby at times, but I don't make it a habit.  Some people do.  I can go all the way back to my childhood and give you the names of every one of my relatives who belong to that genre', because I noticed there is this about them: they were not much fun to be around.  I didn't like them, for that reason.  They depressed me.  So I avoided them as much as I could.  Which wasn't often.  When they're your relatives and your parents take you along to family gatherings, it's pretty hard to avoid them.  As an adult, you can kindly say no to their invitations. 

Which brings me to my point:  Are they crabby because they can't help being crabby or because they don't want to?  I suspect the ones I know are the latter.  It's possible they haven't lived a very happy life, and that prompts my compassion.  But when I look back at my crabby relatives, I see spouses of the crabby who aren't crabby at all.  This seems to lend credence to my belief that they just like to argue and bicker with others.  They must either get some kind of delight from being crabby, or they don't care enough about others to notice how their behavior affects them.  

So what do we crabby-dislikers (How's that for a newly manufactured word?) do about the crabbies?  Avoid them?  Ignore them"  Tolerate them?  The one I like best is to pray for them.  As someone who has lived with chronic pain for forty-plus years, I could easily have joined them, and at times I do for a short time, but I choose not to live that way.  Which tells me people can choose.  If they choose to live differently, they can.  And I suspect that, if they do, if they decide to change from chronically crabby to chronically thoughtful and self-giving people, they will find greater happiness for themselves.  

Have a happy, crabby-free day,

Margaret