Living Tree Poetry

“I believe the time is coming when we will not be able to take our Christianity as casually as we do now.”
A.W. Tozer

“It is a serious thing just to be alive on this fresh morning in this broken world”
Mary Oliver

“A French revolutionary who scaled the Cathedral of Notre Dame, tore the cross from the spire and dashed it on the pavement of Paris.  He said to a peasant:  “We are going to pull down all that reminds you of God.”  The peasant calmly replied, “then pull down the stars!”
Unknown

“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.”
Psalm 89:14

My Prayer today is resolve.  Resolve to continue on, to carry the torch.  Continue in safeguarding all that has been secured by those who have lived, and died, and fought and sacrificed in the name of love, of peace, of goodness, of freedom.  Our rights to practice our faith in peace, to read His Word in private, and preach it in public, to have it honoured in our laws and our way of life, are bought, not just by His blood, but by the blood of many, who then and now are made to make a choice for their faith.   Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “I heard the Bells on Christmas Day” was written on Christmas Day in 1863, a few years after he had been widowed by a tragic accident, leaving him with six children, the eldest who as nearly paralysed as his country fought a war against itself.   He heard the bells ringing that Christmas day, and despite the violence and the injustice around him, and private tragedies that had beset him, he was able to write his way out of despair, to hope and faith in God’s restoring mighty power, in Gods promise of peace on earth.  A peace, which we God’s people work out each and every day, through our commitment to righteousness and justice.  We can be assured, that although sometimes it may seem that battles great and small surround us, that ‘love and faithfulness go before us’ and His kingdom will prevail.

These are drawn from daily prayers and reflections I write for my Chaplaincy colleagues.