Category Archives: beauty

A Morning in May

Posted on by

942925_509436185772264_1844997148_n

May is playing games this year –
started sunny, warm and clear,
overnight turned cool and gray,
flirted with the clouds all day,
then called up a roaring wind,
made the temperature descend
further yet and further still,
woke this morning bright, but chill,
setting all the chimes to ringing,
buffeting a sparrow singing,
now a moment still and mild,
now a playful gust, and wild,
sending shivers through new leaves,
driving finches under eaves,
teasing, breezing in the day –
who can know the mind of May?

~ Rebekah Choat

Through Shadow Into Light

Posted on by

Caney Creek 24

Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body.  Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, ‘Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?’  But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.  As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.  ‘Don’t be alarmed,’ he said.  ‘You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified.  He has risen!  He is not here.  See the place where they laid him.’  Mark 16:1-6

Through darkness, you shall come to the light. ~ J.R.R. Tolkien, ‘Of Tuor and His Coming to Gondolin,’ Unfinished Tales p 21

Shadows, Part Four

Posted on by

path in shadow

shadow:  a shaded or darker portion of a picture

‘The story of Jesus is full of darkness as well as of light.  It is a story that hides more than it reveals.  It is the story of a mystery we must never assume we understand and that comes to us breathless and broken with unspeakable beauty at the heart of it yet by no means a pretty story.’  ~ Frederick Buechner, ‘The Two Stories,’ A Room Called Remember p 51

We call it Good Friday, this darkest day in the history of the church.  We don’t understand.  We, like the disciples, are so often sleepy, bewildered, unable to grasp the significance of what is happening.  We’d prefer to avert our eyes, to fast –forward from the triumphal entry of Palm Sunday right on to the triumphal resurrection of Easter.

But this is the story as it happened.  These dark hours are the hinge-pin upon which all that went before and all that comes after turns.  The shadows cannot be skirted; they must be walked through.

 ‘When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve.  And while they were eating, he said, ’I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me.’  Matthew 26:20-21

 ‘Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people came to the decision to put Jesus to death.’  Matthew 27:1

 ‘From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land.  About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtani?’ – which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’  Matthew 27:45-46

 ‘And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.’  Matthew 27:50