First Snow

First Snow (December 2007)

white,
the plunder of ghosts,
has made a fury of the rooftops

i savor on my sympathy:

are not i also such a flicker
fury that I sometimes seem

dissolving in the streetlight
so suddenly swallowed.

Proverbs 21:1

Just a thought from my devotion this morning...

Proverbs 21:1, "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it where He will."

Psalm 73:26, "God is the ROCK of my heart." Water is fluid, flowing, smooth; but rock is solid and unmoving. So when the two are brought together, the water flows as directed by the rock. The rock in a streambed defines the boundaries as the water submits to them. Praise God that He is this Rock, unchangeable in truth, unshakeable as my foundation. The obedient heart is that which 1) puts itself willingly into the hand of God, and 2) accepts the boundaries He has set. Because it is the rock that channels the water, and the boundaries that in fact direct our way.

May my heart be as water directed by the Rock: an outpouring, a life-giving source, obedient to the boundaries of the rock that determines my path.

come simple

Matthew 11:25-26 "At that time Jesus declared, 'I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them instead to little children; yes, Father, for such was your good pleasure."

The parables all unwrap themselves—
strings and lines fall simply away—

when the scribes count their stars,
the rocks hold their breath,
the years tilt on their very eve,

and the universe unclenches of its shining advents
and stoops to fill instead
the cradle of a child's hand.