Sleep Can Be Elusive

Sleep can be elusive when the children
Fitf'ly toss and turn upon their beds;
In the morn's wee hours you be wond'rin'
How you will survive without some rest.

I can see how easy it would be then
For Despair to make its presence known,
And the only way you can defeat him
Is to bare your heart before the throne.

There, then, I will join you in this hour;
There with God, our Father, we can plead:
Asking in his mercy and his power
He would grant you rest in time of need.

Rest that first begins with all your children;
Rest that drives away sickness and fears;
Rest derived from peace that stands a-guardin'
Hearts and minds, and dries away all tears.

Father, God of mercies and all comfort,
As before, we come to you again.
Pleading for a night of restful slumber,
Asking now in Jesus' name, Amen.

40,000 Little Buzzy Busy Bees

Forty thousand little buzzy busy bees
Live inside the hive that hangs among the trees.
Daily they go buzzing through the countryside,
Looking for a source of sweetness to imbibe.

Pollinating crops and veg'tables and trees,
And within the hive creating honey sweet.
When the season's right, the keeper goes around
Raiding hives, and taking stashes that are found.

James speaks of a farmer who waits patiently;
This, too, could be said of one who tends the bee:
Moved by expectation of the precious fruit
Which rewards the diligence in this pursuit.

For that coming day, though far away it be,
I too wait, with anxious longing, eagerly;
In the fruit of my hands' labor I will share,
Having built the beehives that are hanging there.

Never At Odds

The saints confess God had a plan
The day that He created man;
A purpose which He would instill
So man, this mission, could fulfill.

The saints confess that man's chief end,
The cause for which God fashioned him:
To glorify God, and to be
Enjoying God eternally.

To those who read with ears to hear,
The Bible's evidence is clear:
Whate'er you do, in deed or word,
Do to the glory of the Lord.

The question, though, nips at our minds,
Sometimes foreground, but oft behind;
The question which we can't ignore:
Himself? Or us? Who is God for?

But we so often fail to see
This is a false dichotomy --
Our highest good is most enhanced
When our God's glory is advanced.

God works for good for those He's called
(Who love him: with Him are enthralled),
And for the glory of our God.
And never are these two at odds!

a poem using Long Meter, iambic tetrameter

May God Be Gracious Unto You, and Yours

a sonnet

May God be gracious unto you and yours
This night, and grant you sleep with peaceful dreams,
And bear your burdens 'way on angel wings,
As you entrust to Him all that is yours.

May He dispatch his grace from heaven's shores
To guard your heart and mind with heaven's peace;
May your reliance on His grace increase.
May He, to you, unlock all heaven's stores.

He said that in this He is glorified:
That we ask in His name, and then receive,
And thereby, our joy also would be full.
Thus, on my knees I've knelt, and to Him cried
That He would grant more than I can conceive
To you, and yours; and your joy to fill full!

May We Still Trust

thoughts about weather, and an exhortation to trust our Father, knowing that Mother Nature answers to Father God, and El Niño obeys El Padre

'Tis lovely in these parts today;
The temperature is nice and warm;
The grass is greening, I might say.
But of the ev'ning we are warned
That weather quite severe may come
With thunderstorms and softball hail.
Tornadoes are foreseen by some,
Though, truly, only time will tell.
So we can joy in weather fair,
And weather foul we can endure,
For all's from God, and for our good.
Indeed, of this, we can be sure.
So even when we cannot see
Why certain things, endure, we must;
How weather foul could possibly
Be for our good; May we still trust!