How does God
speak to us?
We talk at him
but forget to listen.
We plead for answers
but fail to hear,
ask for help
but do not recognize
our rescue.
How does God
speak to us?
Whispers in the heart
poems in the sand
songs in the air
many ways to help
us understand
God speaks to us
constantly. It
is up to us to
listen, learn,
and pass the message
on to others. This
is love
at its finest.
There’s music in the sighing of a reed;
There’s music in the gushing of a rill;
There’s music in all things, if men had ears;
Their earth is but an echo of the spheres.
~Lord Byron
The wings of spring have taken flight in the feisty winds of March. In so doing they have lifted Columbine’s curving, knob-tipped spurs on fanciful flights. Spilling down from deep in the throats of the yellow, flowering “bells” are stunning filaments and anthers which are like tiny, musical tongues issuing forth sweet, golden proclamations. Winter, as inanimate as it seems, has a lyrical sound, but the sounds of spring as the earth reanimates itself are far richer and more honeyed. They along with the other silvery sounds of spring are soft-hearted and serene in the beginning; however, as spring grows long in the tooth and summer approaches, the arias reach almost deafening crescendos. Then after the solstice passes, summer moves along to a steady, hot latino beat until autumn comes again and tones down earth’s rhythms with ripe, mellower tones. We, mortals, may never understand the what and where of earth’s magic and music, but that certainly can’t stop us from enjoying it nor from adoring the mysteries of the music’s Maker. Lest one believe that it is only poets, writers, and musicians who hear the music of the natural world, let me say that it was Giuseppe Mazzini, an influential Italian political thinker, who said, “Music is the harmonious voice of Creation, and echo of the invisible world.” I believe the love of music comes from the Lord because He gave birds their songs, and also those who love and compose music are created in God’s image.
Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent. ~Victor Hugo
Praise the Lord with the harp; make music to Him on the ten-stringed lyre. Psalm 33:2 ✝
Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you save, you heal, you restore, and you reveal Your Father’s heart to us!
Just as the remnant green in tinted pot
So are these leaves, now rough and wrecked
Behind the flower umbels, that reflect
Only a hue of blue, more do they not.
Reflected are they, tear-stained, imperfect,
As if this they were prone to cease,
And as in blue and aged paper leaves
There’s yellow within, grey and violet.
Faded like a washed-out pinafore
No longer worn and of so little use:
How do we our too-short life endure.
But suddenly a blue renewed is seen
Among one of the umbels, and I sense
A blue delighted, smiling at the green.
~Rainer Maria Rilke
Not all the hydrangeas in the photos are blue like the one Rilke is describing, but I found these at the nursery today and they were just too gorgeous not to share. I have 5 hydrangeas in my garden, but the late freeze at the beginning of March has really set them back if not killed them. I’m seeing a few green leaves but by now they would normally be fully leafed out with signs of budding. Not so this year sadly.
For you, Lord, have delivered me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living. ~Psalm 116:8-9 ✝
Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you save, you heal, you restore, and you reveal Your Father’s heart to us!
Winged insect feeding
for eons on nectar or
pollen and aphids
Wake you at twilight
In the greening of the year
To hunt and lay eggs
In gardens galore
and parks, meadows, or elsewhere
rid you plants from harm
Found you I at dusk
sheltered in magnolia’s bloom
resting from a feast
For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before the nations. ~Isaiah 61:11 ✝
Thank you, Jesus, that you save, you heal, you restore, and you reveal Your Father’s heart to us!
Summer’s harsh heat waves
cede to Autumn’s mellow chills
before winter’s snows
After the land sleeps
Spring pushes herself up in
Softly hued newness
Day after day flowers
adorn once barren spaces
until dog days reign
Round and round Creation
moves according to the plan
of Him who made it
But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations. Psalm 33:11 ✝
Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you save, you heal, you restore, and you reveal Your Father’s heart to us!
Under the green hedges, after the snow,
There do the dear little violets grow;
Hiding their modest and beautiful heads
Under the hawthorn in soft mossy beds.
Sweet as the roses and blue as the sky
Down there do the dear little violets lie;
Hiding their heads where they scarce may be seen,
By the leaves you may know where the violet hath been.
~John Moultrie
But with you (Lord) there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you. Psalm 130:4 ✝
Thank you, Jesus, that you save, you heal, you restore, and you reveal Your Father’s heart to us!
**Photo via Pinterest
Be praised, My Lord,
through Sister Water;
she is very useful,
and humble,
and precious,
and pure.
~St. Francis of Assisi
The sight of water, be it in a pond, a river, the sea, a fountain, or even a drop from a spigot touches something deep in “the temple of my inner being.” I love to sit quietly and watch water fall or splash or ripple or break like the waves on a seashore. And if I peer down long enough into the mysterious depths of a body of water, my mind conjures up images of earth’s origins, and subsequently the Garden of Eden comes alive in my soul’s eye. Even gauzy reflections which quiver and quake in a puddle or body of water seem to possess a captivating life, a compelling story, a gripping sanctity of their own.
Although I know not where it rests in the human psyche, I believe somewhere therein mortals recognize familiar things not necessarily of this world, things they appear to know without human tutelage or logic’s reason. In the same way a child instinctively recognizes its biological mother even after the umbilical cord is severed, I believe we, who are temporarily separated from the Holy Source of our being, retain a sense of the Father’s parenting presence because we belong to the Lord and are inextricably a part of Him. It could be that’s why earth and its waters not only call to me but also comfort me.
…by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. ~2 Peter 3:5 ✝
Thank you, Jesus, that you save, you heal, you restore, and you reveal Your Father’s heart to us!
**Photo via Pinterest
The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer. ~Psalm 6:9 ✝
Thank you, Jesus, that you save, you heal, you restore, and you reveal Your Father’s heart to us!
** Things aren’t completely restored but at least I finally was able to publish a small post tonight. Thanks for the concern from many of my readers about the issues I’ve been having with my health and blog. Some of you even shared health issues of your own. I pray that you are healed and made whole once again very soon. I also pray that anyone else within the sound of my “blog” voice who is experiencing any kind of health issue or trial experiences God’s love and mercy as well. Love to all, Natalie 🙂
…the garden is not only a place
to make things grow and
to display the beautiful flowers of the earth,
but a place that should accord
with various moods of its admirers.
It should be a place
in which to hold light banter,
a place to laugh, and, besides
should have a hidden corner in which to weep.
~Alice Lounsberry
Nor is the fragrant garden ever wholly our own…
Over hedge and wall,
and often far down the highway,
it sends a greeting
not alone to us who have toiled for it,
but to the passing stranger,
the blind beggar,
the child skipping to school,
the tired woman on her way to work,
the rich man,
the careless youth.
~Louise Beebe Wilder
Thank you, Jesus, that you save, you heal, you restore, and you reveal Your Father’s heart to us!
The Lord announces the word, and the women who proclaim it are a mighty throng: Psalm 68:11 ✝
**Photo via Pinterest
A garden spot may be a noisy place
Where droning bees
Seek honey, spiders weave their silver lace
Upon the trees,
And little birds sing songs the livelong day.
Or it may be so silent that it seems
The flowers sleep,
And shy, mysterious virgin dreams
Their vigil keep,
And God communes with earth the livelong day.
~Pringle Barret
Spring, ever so splendid springtime! God’s glory colors the arms of barren trees, the unfolding petals of flowers, and the fanciful wings of every creature in flight. Rebirth and renewal explode from soil seemingly laid waste by icy months of freezing temperatures, and the sunshine charges the air with invigorating currents. The hum of the bees and the song of the birds fill ears with melodies, sweet and grand, while spiders do indeed weave sticky lairs of “silver lace.” Then there are those splendiferous moments at dawn and twilight when a tranquil hush pervades the space between heaven and earth, and in the silence sacred whispers cross the thresholds of listening ears.
Listen! My beloved! Look! Here he comes, leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills. ~Song of Songs 2:8 ✝
May your salvation, Jesus, be with us always!
Sacred Touches 