If Only...

[This prose is almost poetic.]

If only Adam hadn't sinned, humanity would have recognized God in all creatures and would have love and praised Him so that even in the smallest blossom they would have seen and pondered His power, grace, and wisdom. But who can fathom how from the barren earth God creates so many kinds of flowers of such lovely colors and sweet scent, as no painter or alchemist could make? Yet God can bring forth from the earth green, yellow, red, blue, brown, and every kind of color. All these things would have turned the mind of Adam and his kin to honor God and glorify and praise Him and to enjoy His creatures with gratitude. ---Martin Luther ("Table Talk" 4.198, Weimar)

But through sin and the fall we humans have become so weakened, so poisoned and corrupted in body, soul, eyes, ears and everywhere that our sense are not the 100th part as sharp as were Adam's before the fall. Our bodies are unclean, and all creatures have become subject to futility (Romans 8). The [16th century!] sun, moon, stars, clouds, air, earth and water are no longer so pure and beautiful and lovely as they were [before sin]. But on that [last] day, all things will be made new and will once more be beautiful, as St. Paul says, Romans 8: "Creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." ---Martin Luther (Weimar 44.231ff)

Holy God, We Praise Your Name

[a hymnodic paraphrase of the ancient chant, the Te Deum]

Holy God, we praise Your Name;
Lord of all, we bow before You!
All on earth Your scepter claim*,
All in Heaven above adore You;
Infinite Your vast domain,
Everlasting is Your reign.

Hark! the loud celestial hymn
Angel choirs above are raising,
Cherubim and seraphim,
In unceasing chorus praising;
Fill the heavens with sweet accord:
Holy, holy, holy, Lord.

Lo! the apostolic train
Join the sacred Name to hallow;
Prophets swell the loud refrain,
And the white robed martyrs** follow;
And from morn to set of sun,
Through the Church the song goes on.

You are King of glory, Christ:
Son of God, yet born of Mary;
For us sinners sacrificed,
Bringing us a sanctuary:
First to break the bars of death,
You have opened Heaven to faith.

Therefore do we pray You, Lord:
Help Your servants whom, redeeming
By Your precious blood out-poured,
You have saved from Satan’s scheming.
Give to them eternal rest
In the glory of the blest.

Spare Your people, Lord, we pray,
By a thousand snares surrounded:
Keep us from falling away,
Never let us be confounded.
See, I put my trust in You:
Guide my footsteps in all that I do.

Holy Father, Holy Son, Holy Spirit,
Three we name You;
While in essence only One,
Undivided God we claim You;
And adoring bend the knee,
While we own the mystery.
---Ignaz Franz (German), 1774; adapted Marie Byars, 2008

*more specifically, all of nature & all the saved acknowledge Him willingly now; someday, everyone will be made to acknowledge Him
**"martyrs": those who died as a result of their faith, giving a powerful Christian witness. ("Martyros" in Greek originally meant "witness.")

The Starlight Night

Look at the stars! look. look up at the skies!
O look at all the fire-folk sitting in the air!
The bright boroughs*, the circle-citadels* there!
Down in the dim woods the diamond delves**! the elves' eyes!
The grey lawns cold where gold, where quickgold*** lies!...
Ah, well! it is all a purchase, all is a prize.****
---from Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1877

*city images, as if the constellations were fortified cities
**the diamond-like stars dive down to the "land of elves"; (Hopkins nor I really believe in elves--it's just a fanciful & joyful flight of poetic symbolism)
***the light of the heavenly bodies is like "free gold" to anyone who takes the trouble to take it in, but it's gold in motion---it won't be there forever
****the prize comes from the purchase made by Jesus Christ; He died for your sins so all this, too, can be yours, along with the forgiveness and life you have in Him

Spring

Nothing is so beautiful as Spring
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush's eggs look little low heavens*, and thrush**
Through the echoing timber does so rise and wring
The ear, it strides like lightnings to hear him sing;
The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing limbs, too, have fair their fling.

What is all this juice and all this joy?
A strain of the earth's sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden---have, get before it cloy***
Innocent mind and Mayday**** in girl and boy,
Most, O Maid's Child*****,
Thy choice and worth the winning.
---Gerard Manley Hopkins, may 1877

*Eggs the color of the sky & reminders of it
**Thrush: the songbird, not the yeast-related infection (ha, ha!!)
***Cloy: to satiate, us. w/something pleasing. Basically, hurry to enjoy this fleeting reminder of Eden before it is spoiled, as the first Eden was by sin
****Mayday: May 1st. Celebrated in Europe with flowers & folk dances. (Happy Mayday! Also, Blessed Ascension. This year, the day commemorating Jesus's bodily Ascension through the clouds, after which we could no longer see Him physically, is also May 1st.)
*****Maid's Child: The Virgin's Son, Jesus. (Roman Catholics devote all of May to Mary.) This suggests that Jesus would choose the "innocent" boys & girls more than anyone else. Actually, no one's innocent & God loves all us rotten sinners just the same.

Birds in Scripture

My soul longed, even yearned
For the courts of Yahweh.
My mind* and my flesh
Cry out to the Living God.
Even the songbird** has found a house,
And the swallow a nest for herself
Where she may lay her young---
Your altars, Oh Yahweh of Armies,
My King and my God! (Psalm 84:2-3)

(Yahweh says)
"I know every bird in the mountains,
And the wild beasts of the forest are Mine." (Ps. 50:11)

In Yahweh have I trusted:
How do you [plural: "y'all"] say to my soul,
"Flee as a bird to your [plural] mountain"?? (Ps. 11:1)

(O, Yahweh),
Keep me as the apple of Your eye:
In the shadow of Your wings hide me. (Ps. 17:8)

"As birds flying around,
Thus will Yahweh of Armies protect Jerusalem.
Defending, he will deliver.
He will 'pass over' and protect." (Isaiah 31:5)

Mighty Yahweh,
You have made yourself known in your Son, Jesus.
Through His crucifixion,
You have established for us a "New Passover"
Where You "pass over" the wrongs we do
And the failures to do right.

As Jesus said, make us to trust
The way the ravens do
"Which niether sow (grain) nor reap
Nor gather (food) into barns"
And are yet fed by our Heavenly Father.
(Matthew 6:25-27 & Luke 12:22-24)

We are worth so much more to You
And, yet, we fill up our lives
With things that are worthless.
Forgive us, love us, and keep working in us
To give us the simple trust of your little birds.

Detail from a tablecloth sold by Vermont Country Store

[original Bible translations & explanatory verses]

*Literally "heart", which ancient Hebrews considered the seat of the intellect.
**"Sparrow" in some translations

Flowers & Grasses in Scripture

"'Man, born of woman,
is of few days, full of turmoil.
As a flower he springs forth
and fades away;
And as a fleeting shadow,
he does not last.'" (Job14:1-2)
"Man--his days are as grass;
As a flower of the field he thus flourishes." (Psalm 103:15)
"They are in the morning
as new grass which springs up.
In the morning it springs and grows;
in the evening it withers and dries out." (Ps. 90:5b-6)
"A voice says, 'Cry out!'
And I say, 'What shall I cry?'
[God replies],
'All flesh is green grass
and all its loveliness as the flower of the field.'
The grass withers, the flower fades
because the Spirit [or 'breath'] of Yahweh blows upon it.
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the Word of God shall stand forever." (Isaiah 40:6-8)
[Messiah says]
"'I am the Crocus* of Sharon,
the Lily of the Valleys.'" (Song of Songs 2:1)
[Because of Messiah Jesus]:
"The wilderness and parched land will be glad;
And the desert-plain will rejoice and blossom;
Like the crocus it will bloom profusely
And rejoice greatly and shout for joy." (Isaiah 35:1-2a)
----original translations

*not really "rose of Sharon"---it's a crocus in Hebrew!!

Joseph the Faithful Carpenter

Joseph, the Faithful Carpenter 

Ponders the new he keeps concealed:

His bride-to-be in found with child— 

A father’s name is not revealed. 

 As Joseph slumbers fitfully 

An angel enters Joseph’s dream 

To tell him that this comes from God 

And things are not as they may seem: 

 “O, Joseph, banish all your fears 

And take Young Mary as your wife 

And be a father to God’s child 

Who comes to share in human life.” 

Good Joseph, born of David’s line 

(Which matters not in days of Rome) 

Bequeaths a human royalty 

And gives the Boy a godly home. 

A jealous Herod fears this King,

So Joseph takes them speedily 

To Egypt, where again he works, 

To care for his small family. 

 An angel tells that Herod’s dead, 

So Joseph brings them all back home; 

He brings them to quaint Nazareth 

And raises God’s Son as his own.

---C. Marie Byars, 1999 (c)

God's Grandeur

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod (1)?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod(2).

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs--
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent (3)
World broods (4) with warm breast
                 and with ah! bright wings (5).

---Gerard Manley Hopkins, , 1877
(1) Psalm 2:9. Jesus wields a rod to smash prideful kings.
(2) Shod feet. The loss of pristine innocence, the need to be clothed after sin entered the world.(3) Bent world. (a) tired (b) bent but not broken; crooked, inperfect (c) curved, as an egg over which the Spirit broods
(4) Brooding of the Holy Spirit---see Genesis 1.
(5) As one turns from the dark west horizon (earth's tiredness, coming as a result of man's sin) back to the eastern horizon, where the sun is rising, he sees the promise of a new day under the Spirit's care. This borrows from the Bible's Dove symbolism (breast and wings), which are bright and colorful as the beautiful sunrise.

The Spirit "brooded over the waters", in a sense, at Jesus' baptism, also.  In choosing colors for these, I was mindful that the Jordan River is muddy & turgid, but I also wanted it to still look like "water" to the casual observer. Due to the way the 2nd picture drew the Holy Spirit coming, I made a choice to have rainbow-like light below Him.  This also reminded me of the "ah! bright wings" of Hopkins' poem.

Though the second picture has more "immature" art, one thing is more accurate:  the Holy Spirit and the voice came after Jesus had come back up out of the water.  The art in this photo, for whatever reasons, is either sunrise or sunset.  (The time of day isn't mentioned in the Bible.)  But it does remind the observer of Hopkins' allusion to sunrise in his poem.

Ode to Joy

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, meekness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control." Galatians 5:22-23.

Hi! I am JOY
A fruit of the Spirit;
I come to all Christians
But am often neglected.
I show up in small ways:
In a child's toothless grin,
In helping an old lady,
In a baby's slobbered chin.
I'm always near
Just take time to look---
I inhabit a rainbow
And an uplifting book.
I grace all your learning
When you "see the light."
I'm there when you make peace
And cool down a fight.
I'm among friends
Who love to go fishing,
Just drinking a beer*
And talking and wishing. . .
I brightened your folks
Before you were born,
Now I tag-along with YOU
As you weather life's storms.
I give true delight
In Christian commitment;
I pervade your soul
When you learn contentment.

I dance through creation
And make the stars twinkle
And fill the dry ground
When rain starts to sprinkle.

I'm there in all seasons

I love them ALL best.
After a day of hard work
Together we rest.
I'm the lush grass that tickles 
Your comfortable bare feet.
I enhance the mem'ries
When old buddies meet.

Sitting in church

I keep you awake
No matter how long
The service may take.
I'm there in fond mem'ries
You dwell on from home;
I hid in that pun
That caused you to groan.
I delight in your discovery
Of just Whose you are;
When you LIKE who He made you
Indeed we've come far!
I haunted the Maker
Before He made time;
When all was pronounced good,
The pleasure was mine.
I bestowed warmth upon earth
At Easter's SON-rise;
I'll escort you to heaven
When someday YOU rise!
I'm happy we've met,
I'll be a good friend;
I'll always be with you
My gifts NEVER end!"

A cheerful heart is good medicine,
But a broken spirit dries up the bones." Proverbs 17:22
---C. Marie Byars, 1984

*or "Coke"

The Bible's Trees

The trees of Yahweh are full,
The cedars of Lebanon which He planted,
Where the birds make their nests:
The stork has her home in the cypress trees. 
[Psalm 104: 16-17]

"The stump of Jesse shall grow anew, " [promised Yahweh]
"And a Sprout [Jesus] from the root shall bear fruit.
And upon Him shall rest the Spirit of Yahweh:
The Spirit of Wisdom and of Understanding,
The Spirit of Counsel and of Might,
The Spirit of Knowledge and of the Fear of Yahweh." 
[Isaiah 11:1-3a]

"Cursed be any man who hangs on a tree." 
[Deuteronomy 21:22; Galatians 3:13]
"But I, when I am lifted up from the earth,
I, Jesus, shall draw all people unto myself." [John 12:32]

(The righteous man) is like a tree,
Which has been planted by streams of water,
Which gives its fruit in its proper time.
Its leaf does not wither:
Whatever it does will prosper. [Ps. 1:3]

The trees of the forest will sing for joy before Yahweh,
For He comes to judge the earth. [I Chronicles 16:33]

"You will go forth in joy," [promises Yahweh]
And be lead forth in peace. . .
The trees of the fields will clap their hands.
Rather than the thorn, the cypress will come up;
Rather than the brier, the myrtle will come up.
And all this will be for the sake of Yahweh's Name,
An everlasting sign which will not be destroyed." [fr. Is. 55:12-13]
(original translations)

Biblical Precipitation

Praise Yahweh from the earth:
Fire and hail, snow and clouds,
Storm winds doing His will...
Let them praise the Name of Yahweh,
For His Name alone is exalted;
His splendor is above the earth and heavens. [Psalm 148: 7a, 8, 13]

"God's voice thunders with marvelous things." [Young Elihu said.]
"He does great things we cannot know deeply.
For to the snow He says, 'Fall on the earth',
And to the rain shower, 'Be mighty torrents.'. . .
The animal goes into a lair
And settles down in its dens,
From the Breath of God is ice given, and the broad waters are frozen,
He also loads the cumulus clouds with moisture;
Clouds disperse His lightning..." [Job 37:5-6, 8-11]

He sends forth His command to the earth;
His word runs swiftly forth.
He dispenses snow as wool;
He scatters hoar-frost as ashes.
He hurls His hail as fragments---
Who can stand before His icy cold?
He sends forth His word and melts them;
He causes His wind to blow, and the waters flow. [Ps. 147;15-18]

"For just as the rain comes down," [says Yahweh]
"And the snow from the heavens,
And does not return there
Without watering the earth,
Causing it to sprout
So that it yields seed to the sower
And bread to the eater,
Thus is My Word which goes forth from My mouth:
It does not return void unto Me
But does what I have desired
And advances those things for which I sent it." [Isaiah 55:10-11]
(original translations)

Fairest Lord Jesus

Fair are the meadows,
Fair are the woodlands,
Robed in flow'rs of blooming spring;
Jesus is fairer;
Jesus is purer;
He makes our sorr'wing spirits sing.
---ancient hymn text