Butterflies

Butterflies
Fly up high
Carry a message to my love
who lives beyond the sky
I saw Him deep within a dream
His heart and mine were one
He seated me on a hummingbird's back
I rode her past the sun
In crystal flight she split the sky
We soared, then dipped and climbed
Through endless halls of prismed light
And through a jeweled door
I caught a glimpse of heaven bright
and fair as endless day
My love was there, My Lord was He
And death and sorrow ceased
He reigned in splendored majesty
His land forever peace

Awakening, my soul was grieved,
for earth-bound still 'twas I
But Hope flew higher than
Butterflies
And helped my heart to see
That this was truth, the dream was real
As was my Lord's
Promise to return for me

Eulogy for my Birth Father

Into my tiny mind
you planted seeds of thought
and some were beautiful and kind
and some, admittedly, were not
Some were bright wildflower seeds
some were stately roses
and some, quite naturally, were weeds

Then came days of too much rain
and blighting hail
But have you ever wondered at the way
crushed blossoms give a sweeter smell?

Finally, I asked the Gardener in
Who pulls up all the weeds
He cultivates and patiently waits
to see His flowers freed

So you cast your bread upon the foaming waters
And it comes back like petals
on the wind-swept waves
And someday soon perhaps we'll stand
together on that golden shore and
pluck the thornless flowers that never fade

Homecoming

I cannot see you now
for fair day and skies of blue
hide my twinkling, starry home
But I know you are
up there, out there
watching, waiting
Longing more than I
for the day you'll bring us home
and I know that by your Spirit
you are with me even now
drawing me out- as the Spinner
spins the wool
until I am fine spun gold
for You

Bright Orion - daylight hides you
Landmark to my starry heavenly home,
but Jesus waits beyond
and all Eternity. .
a soon to be encountered
dream come true

In the Deep

I am a little starfish
clinging to the Rock
The waves of life wash over me
Trying to pry me off
but I'm a little starfish
clinging to a great and mighty Rock

I am a piece of driftwood
floating to and fro
lost out on the ocean
and I don't know where to go
but there's a Hand that charts my course
and He will lead me home

It takes Time

It takes time to be a Christian
to "study to show thyself approved"
Time to deeply learn the doctrines
that we may stand unmoved

It takes time to know the Saviour
to sit and gaze upon His face
Time to ponder o'er His precepts
and to acquaint ourselves with grace

It takes time to share with others
to find the words that Christ would say
Time to bear our brother's burdens
and to help them on the way

But I have no time
some would tell me
Life is fast and full of care
There's bills to pay
and things to tend to
I have not a moment to spare

If you think you have no time
Here's a thought you need to see,
It's better to spend the time with Jesus
than to lose eternity

Just take the time to seek the Saviour
Then time no longer a problem will be
For when you seek and find the Saviour
you will gain eternity

Jesus, I Would Find Thee in the Pain

Jesus I would seek thee in the pain
Rest by faith until the night is o'er
This pain You bore, yet still I feel it, why?
The dark result, the consequence of sin
is acted on the stage of every life
Some, by choice, go down in dark defeat
Some, by choice, will find the victory sweet

Jesus I would find thee in the pain
To rise above the hurt on wings of faith
To find sweet comfort
in Your heavenly smile
and in the end to know
that You've been with me all the while

Light in the Darkness

Shining and glimmering
Your beauty attracts me
The darkness of life
Makes heaven so bright

I reach from the blackness
to grasp Your bright star
You give so willingly
Like stardust down moonbeams
Your Spirit falls on me

Lots of Cats

Rollicking, romping, rolling cats
Tumbling, twisting acrobats

Cuddling, curling, cozy cats
Feisty felines chasing rats

Frolicking, furry, funny cats
Finicky, frisky, fighting cats

Aloof, elite sophisticats
not too many humble cats

Joyful, playful, happy cats
Snoozing, sleepy, sunshine cats

Cats on laps
and cats in trees
and sometimes where they ought not be

Some are big and
some are small
Thin or fat
We love them all

So many kinds- just think of that!
Aren't you glad that God made cats?! =^..^=

Love Became a Man

Love cannot have an end
for it never did begin
God is love
God says, "I am"
and so begins the story
How Love Became a Man

Enthroned above the realms of mortality
High in perfect unity
Before time and beyond space
He was...
This Monarch of a myriad, twinkling worlds
Each unique in its creation
Worlds still in their first-formed glory
Watch unfold redemption's story

Awesome grandeurs of galaxies
bow down before Him
As the Potter becomes the clay
Wheels and worlds spinning
Riding down rainbowed colonnades of time and space
Sped on, the Spirit plants the
Seed of light
A million bright starbursts and
hope breaks forth into the cold heart of humanity
and in the darkness of a virgin's womb
the Light of the world begins to grow

Sing starlight
for the One Light
takes upon Himself
the form of flesh

Praise Him ye hills and mountains high
Herald aloud the news
for tonight infinite Divinity
makes finite earth His home

Unfurl ye flowers at His feet
and throw your fragrance down
Bright gems against the velvet green
Your thorns foretell His crown

Whose form once draped in robes of light
lies wrapped in swaddling rags
And angels gaze in wonder at their King
lying where the mule and oxen
take their board
And He whom all the universe adores
begins a servant's life

Playing in the city streets
Sunlight sweeps down narrow avenues
and sets smooth walls of stone aglow
Laughing, leaping, loving life
As children all are wont to do
Love was now in children's clothes
Yet even as a child, was true

For even in those tender years
the enemy was wroth
The cutting cries of teen-aged youth
(young hearts can be so cruel)
And shouts that mocked His loving ways
Followed Him down narrow avenues

But never once did He return
evil for their evil
Always love He traded
for their crude accusations
for He was Love
no robes of flesh
could rob Him of
the Father's power

And growing now..
A strong, young man
Olive-brown and baked by the sun
Deep, piercing eyes
that hold the secrets of eternity

A solitary life, some say
Yes, for He was far from home
Did He not long for someone special?
One earthly soul to share His life?
No, He longed that
all the race
a pure and spotless bride to be
All this frail and faulty race
All these dusty grains of clay
and so He lived alone

Alone? A strange description
for this Man
For all day the crowds press in on Him
Help me Heal me End my pain
His followers were few
and questioned His methods
For the weight of their glory
was bound up in earthly means
And always present the
masses of suffering souls
Teach me Feed me End my pain

But, yes, He was alone. . .
alone in His suffering
alone in His understanding of His mission
alone in His knowledge of the cost of life

Yet in the silent mountain mornings
and the cool of nighttime meadows
Among the things He had created
the Saviour held communion
with those who understood
Drawing strength to face each day
from our Father which art in heaven
and the Holy Spirit's power

Never to draw on His own power
even for endurance within that darkest hour
And always -
that never sleeping
hound of hell
dogged His steps
to heights and breadths
that only He could suffer

And now the cup which He was born to drink
is placed within His hands
He looks into the darkness of the vessel
and the depth of it makes Him shudder
As He prepares to drink the wine
of mankind's hate and sin
He knows it's all or nothing
and Love recoils from the thought
of imbibing such a draught
and begs it taken from Him

And in the shadows, under the trees
under the dark and weeping trees
He was wholly man. .like me
Afraid of the future
Rejected by friends
But how His pain was multiplied
by the purity of His love

Twas wholly man that bled and
a heart of flesh did die
But it was wholly God that suffered
and Holy God that cried

He rose to leave the garden
the taste of death still
on His lips
His will surrendered
the war was won
but sin's wages must be paid

Each step He climbed
weighed heavier
with the grief of all the years
murderers, forgotten children
sadness, sickness, sorrow
and every lonely lover's tears
for all time past
and all tomorrows

As Love carried all this burden
up that long, steep hill
the weight pressed thin His spirit
But still His eyes on heaven
and the fair and lovely bride
determined yet to win her
He onward, upward pressed
Into the heat of battle
and to the black abyss

Alone, time-locked and suspended
with sky above
and earth below
hangs the form of Love

like meat upon a wooden post
spread-eagle on the butcher block of sin
While angels weep and
gaze in wonder at their King

One gleam of comfort
pierces the gloom
the thief with a sense of
approaching doom
cries out with hope:
"Remember me"
and Jesus says,
"with me thou shalt be."

Once manifest in majesty
He now bears our humility
and drenched in sin's dark mockery
until the Father cannot
look upon Him
In charity and pain He turns His face
Lest the burning eyes of righteousness
Consume His only Son

I look, and lo, the chilling shock
of recognition:
for the sin He bears is mine
and all the mocking insults
the pain, the blows,
the crown of thorns
that sad, frail flowers have yielded up
all are but my due
and yet, He drinks
the dregs of the cup of human woe
submits to bear a sorrow
that only He can know

The weight of guilt was awful
The sin that causes separation
was cutting like a knife
My Father hast thou forsaken Me
and left me to this end?
My companion from eternity past,
will I ever see thy face again?

The silent answer speaks a grief
too deep for mortal minds
By faith alone He rests the outcome
in the knowledge of His Father's Love
And bows in death that sacred head for us -
the purchase of His blood

The Sabbath spent in dreamless sleep
He rests again from what He has created:
a life-gate into heaven
Whose residents can scarce restrain
their hearts beat
songs of ecstasy
the King would live again!

While mankind sang a mournful song
and prostitutes of Truth rejoiced
They thought the rabble-rouser laid to rest
But laid to rest was
any peace they might have had
and High Priests were haunted
by the memory of
that shredded veil

Now to a rich man's garden
and to a borrowed tomb
An angel flies with eager wings
and rolls away the stone
"Come forth, thy Father calls thee."
and Love steps out victorious
and Death is swallowed up

Who on that first day of the week
was privileged first to see Him?
It was not a loyal,
stout-hearted man
nor His mother, sweet and pure. .
but that "other Mary"
a "walker of the streets"
for women schooled in hardship
possess a stronger, deeper love
and He had turned her crying
to a Sacred song

The song she sang still echoes
and continues down the days
as new as when first given
He gives it still to all who ask
a song that fills the life with hope
and joy, and peace, and heaven
How patient are the sufferings
of those who would live there
They bow their hearts in gratitude
Remembering the cost:
Love so deep it counted
self -
a pittance to be lost
and gained for us
those myriad worlds
those twinkling jeweled stars

With His blood He bought and gave us
Life and love forever
Dull lumps of clay
He loves us well
and forms us in His image

Deep within the second veil
the wedding is taking place
Before He comes
we must be one
to show those countless worlds
what love can do
in me
in you
What heights can be attained
Then sin shall cease
in songs of peace
He'll come to take us home

He waits on High
a lonely Man
the garlanded tables ready
the music planned
the feast to start
He waits for you
to give your heart

Behold the many deaths He died
for one of them was yours
and dying still
with every sin
those wounds
are opened wide
but very soon,
the waiting ends
For all who are preparing
And joy shall flow
for all will know
the Love that is unsparing

Love Poem

Lord, if ever You should grace me
with a kindred heart to share
Your love
Though he and I be one in You
Twice as strong and stronger still
The better to honor Your name
reflect Your Light
to worship and adore
Though we be as one forever
Still ever would I treasure
those times You reached from heaven
When knelt in chasmed loneliness,
I felt Your love's embrace
from Hands that spilled out life for me
and stained the tree
at Calvary

And lying in a pool of tears. .
self-pity, dark and cold
Your spring-time Son-light
cleared my eyes
and in my heart
pure, sparkling, singing gold

Mental Health Message

Violence is in, you know
Killing is cool
Haven't you noticed?
the "new" look,
the harder, the better,
tough and cold,
with no room for compassion
it shows up in the TV ads and magazines
Smiling, pretty models aren't so popular now,
But tough, don't-mess-with-me -
that's the style,
It screams at us from demon faces on the
covers of compact disks
and the toys of children,
minature replicas of weapons made to maim
and kill.
Once war was an enemy.
Now it's a box office hit and a
game for children.

But violence is in, you know
is it any wonder
after a steady diet of TV and movie murders-
KojakCannonMagnumForceChainSawMassacresTopGun-
that society's collective mind should become
saturated and
spill over
into reality?
By beholding we become changed

Pages of Birds

I have seen the owl at evening
winging through Virginian woods
And an owl in a pine tree in Florida
And one seated on a great round bale of hay
in someone's field
In Tennessee I saw a summer tanager
while sitting on an old man's porch
I've seen the indigo bunting's
sapphire shadow
And the bumblebee colors of goldfinches
I've heard spring arrive riding on the Lark's song,
the rattling call of sandhill cranes,
and the liquid notes of cowbirds
One morning,
(when grey-white clouds thinly shrouded the sky),
a wedge of white egrets passed overhead
And once I saw mallards landing in the mist
cattails and all, autumn leaves
Just like a picture book
I have been blessed by birds
made rich by winged things

Paradox

We who ride on broken wings
Someday soon shall soar
High as eagles on the wind
Bound by earth no more

Who seek a shelter from the storm
but do not fear the fight
Need only God to keep us warm
In darkness find His Light

We who bear that heavy cross
Can know the joy pain brings
Happy in the paradox
of riding broken wings

Silhouettes

Sunrises, Sunsets- these are
the colors of my home
Black-green pines and
scents of meadows bright with dew
this is where I feel at ease
For I am but a sojourner here
TV, radio, crowded stores
these and all the like
are windows through which I view
a hurry-worry worldclutching at nothingness
sucking up wealth
like paper straws in empty paper cups
So thankful, so thankful
Most High God
that I am not a part of this world
and that You wait at home for me
where sunrise and sunset paint Your walls
Black-green pines, meadows bright with dew
and I can feel at ease

Singing Lesson

One night at a dark time in my life
I could not sleep
I rose out of bed to seek solace in
some other room
And outside, in a naked mimosa tree
its limbs like bones
bleached by moonlight
A mockingbird was singing
singing loud and strong

As if the night were not long
the tree not bare
As if by singing
he could roll back the darkness

Something to Think About

Do you want your child to trust you?
He will find it hard to do
When he learns the things you've told him
are make-believe, not true

Who has the supernatural power
to fly through outer space
and to be everywhere at once?
Why, I see Santa everyplace.

He brings me gifts according to
the yearly path I've trod
He knows my thoughts, recording them
Now was that Santa or was that God?

And what about the Easter bunny
and all the cartoon folks
Will little ones believe you
when they find it's all a hoax?

But it's all in fun, you tell me
It can't hurt anything
But seeds of doubt are planted
and a harvest they will bringAnd although they don't express it
something happens in their minds
Characters are being formed
Are you molding the best kind?

For if they think you can't be trusted
to tell them what is true
How can they believe it
When you say "Jesus died for you"

Can you tell them, "I lied about Santa,
but God and Heaven are true?"
For if Santa is only a fableThen maybe Jesus is, too.

The Hummingbird's Message (Small Things)

Emerald and amethyst
Crimson and gold
Hovering
as if perched on air
unaware of its beauty
like a drop of morning dew
filled with rainbows or
a snowflake, a rosebud, a tiny shell
a bright spot of a ladybug,
the notes of a neighbor's mandolin
floating uphill at sunset,
a kind word of encouragement
a smile, a hearty handshake, a hug,
a door held open for arms that are full

O hovering feathered kiss of God,
Remind us of
the large and priceless beauty
and the power
of things gentle and small

Where is it Leading?

I hate abortion
I hate the wounds
the scars across the hearts

But I hate the anger, too, and loneliness
expressed through clenched teenage teeth
"I wish I had never been born"
that sometimes ends in suicide

Everyone knows that killing is wrong
but so is child abuse, and stealing,
and lying, and pride, especially pride
and didn't Jesus say that anger was
murder in the heart?

So, angry protestant America, beware
there are ten commandments

And now we're all buckled up for safety
While the liquor industry stuffs it's pockets
with mangled lives and
splits the profit with the undertaker
We stick laws like little bandages
on gaping wounds
hoping for a cure
while the heart is full of rottenness

What is next?
Will you tell me which day to worship on?
How to love my God?
I hate abortion
Especially the abortion of freedom

Karen Lemonds
good4you@desoto.net