The Trees of Genesis and Revelation

Every day before us lies,

The knowledge of that tree,

Good and evil, right and wrong,

A haunting enemy.

 

Dogging now our every step,

Standing in our way,

For that knowledge there is now,

A price we all must pay.

 

Gone the life of innocence,

Swallowed up by pride,

Steeped in adversity,

No place for us to hide.

 

Adam ate the bitter fruit,

It now is in our bowl,

A pleasure to our eyes,

But bitter to the soul.

 

Yet leaves from the Tree of Life,

Are there to heal our nation,

Life-giving branches,

A means of our salvation.

Adventures with Batman

I always smile when I think of an incident that happened in the summer of 1967.  I was between my junior and senior years of college, having already finished nursing school.  I had come home to live with my parents for the summer, and I was working as an RN at the local hospital, which still had a diploma nursing school program, so they had a nurses’ dorm.

Bill, my then boyfriend (later my husband), and I had begun dating the prior summer.  It was our habit to attend the Sunday evening church service together, and then go to his parents’ home for something to eat after church.  Typically, we had a big dinner and weren’t hungry for supper until late in the evening.  His mother had often served roast beef for Sunday dinner, so there was beef left over for sandwiches.

One evening, Bill had fixed roast beef sandwiches with lettuce, tomato and mayo, and we were enjoying those when the phone rang.  The call was for Bill, and the caller was a student nurse who we knew from church.  She was calling from the nurses’ dorm in an agitated state.  It seems that there was a bat flying around in a suite of bedrooms in the dorm, and there was no one available in hospital maintenance to get rid of it.  The girls were damsels in distress, and for some reason, they decided Bill was the person to call.

Whether this was flirtation on the part of the caller, I was not sure.  One thing I was sure of was that my boyfriend was not going to go into the nurses’ dorm by himself! 

I rode along to the nurses’ dorm and went in with Bill.  The housemother and several girls were milling about in the lobby of the residence, afraid to enter the suite where the bat had been seen.  One of the girls handed Bill a badminton racquet.  I chuckled to myself that it was a BAT-minton racquet.  The girls pointed to a door into the suite, and off Bill went.  We could hear the sound of him moving about and the swish of the racquet.  I think it was less than 5 minutes when he returned with the bat wrapped in a paper towel.

The girls were grateful.  He disposed of the bat.  I felt tagging along with him had made it clear he was mine!

Afterward, I sometimes laughingly called him Batman.

The Dawn

If I had stood at Calvary and viewed the darkness there,

Looked up and seen my dying friend, and felt the deep despair,

Of seeing helpless him on whom I thought I could depend,

I think I might have cried out, “Oh, God…this is the end.”

 

If I had stood outside the tomb and seen the awful stone,

That sealed in the kindest man that I had ever known,

I might have thought, “He wasn’t God, he was only just at friend.”

And in my grief, I would have sobbed, “Oh, God…this is the end!”

 

But a new day was coming.  There was sunrise near at hand.

There would be a brand new morning.  New life was in the plan,

For Christ conquered death and rose again upon that Easter morn,

And just as surely as He lives, we too will see the dawn.

 

So if today you stand here, so overwhelmed by life,

If you cannot make sense of the confusion and the strife,

Put your faith in Him who conquered death, eternity you’ll spend,

In lifting up your praise to Him, this life is not the end!

 

For a new day is coming.  There is sunrise near at hand.

There will be a brand new morning.  New life is in the plan,

For Christ conquered death and rose again upon an Easter morn,

And just as surely as He lives, we too will see the dawn.

Lost Mate

She sits alone in the nest,

Scanning the sky,

With a plaintive cry.

 

She hasn’t repaired her nest.

She sits motionless, still,

Not using her skill.

 

Quietly with a heart needing repair,

Am I, scanning the sky,

Wondering “why?”

 

I understand her loneliness and grief.

Letting time slip by,

The osprey and I.

 

At least, she can fly.

Dream or Vision

I fell asleep one afternoon,

Was it a dream or vision?

A tunnel gray and long,

Raised an intriguing decision.

 

Should I enter quickly?

Carefully tiptoe inside?

Or race ahead recklessly,

Caution thrown aside?

 

The light at the end

Was not white, as expected.

A warm yellow glow

Towards me was directed.

 

Wispy cloud-like beings

Drifted across the light,

Not wraiths, but angels,

A tantalizing sight.

 

But as I stood and pondered,

“Has my time come?”

The tunnel walls collapsed.

And the dream was gone.

 

I woke up disappointed.

“I am still here,” I thought.

Perhaps, the next time will bring,

The heavenly peace I’ve sought.

Dining at the Table

 

 

Dining at the Table

 

We sat at a table on our first date.

It was in a restaurant.

I don’t remember what we ate,

But the conversation was appetizing.

 

For decades we sat at a dinner table,

Sharing the important and the trivial,

Talking through the chatter of children,

Nourished by both food and conversation.

 

We sat at a table one Saturday evening,

Not knowing it was the last time.

Later, I could not remember what we ate.

Only the freshly baked blueberry muffins.

 

Now I sit at a table with one placemat,

Picking at tasteless morsels,

While devouring rich memories,

Gourmet leftovers reheated.

And the Angels Sang

When the angels sang…

 

Into the dark of a cold winter night,

Came a warm and radiant light.

Into a world where wars do not cease,

Came a babe who is Prince of Peace.

 

Into the confusion of a human mind,

Came a Counselor, wise and kind.

Into a life full of pain and grief,

Came the Shepherd for a wand’ring sheep.

 

And a hardened heart by sin so racked,

Looked on the light and defenses cracked,

Amazing love broke every barrier,

As the heart bowed down to the Lord and Savior.

 

And the angels sang!