Seek grace before bliss.
To seek bliss,
Is to seek the gift
May be to shun the Giver.
Who conjures dreams matters.
My pleasure may spring
From forbidden springs.
Before I entrust
Myself to gods,
Should I not seek
To discern “truths”
From Truth.
Come, come,
O, kind Spirit of Truth,
Though You contradict my way,
I promise to obey,
Clad in Your grace,
Day by day.
©2012 Joann Nelander
All rights reserved
Who will come to the stable
On Christmas Day?
And what will they take away?
Wise men, steadfast and earnest, came,
Instead of palace music,
They heard the donkey brae.
A lowly sound and sight,
Yet their wonder unallayed.
Many come rejoicing,
To behold the Newborn King,
Bowing low,
While angels sing.
Christ comes for all
But not all come.
Some come, behold, then fall away,
Being rootless, they merrily go their way.
Father God prepared a voice
To announce His Only Word,
A messenger, born before, to go before.
Another child, spared Ramah’s plight
To live and pierce Sin’s long night
John, O, John, still cries, “Repent!”
Prepare if you would follow.
At Jerusalem’s Gate,
Many cried, “Messiah,”
Who would soon cry, “Crucify.”
Whose will will you do,
When the music fades in life?
Pride prides itself on ‘my way,’
Confounds with will and strife.
Without a ready, willing heart,
Nothing changes Christmas Day.
Corrupt hearts go on corrupting,
All the while the kingly Infant cries,
As throughout His life,
“I am the Way.”
Whose heart will live in yours
As angelic songs fade away.
Will you simply leave the stable
To follow your own way?
Come, O come, rejoicing!
Praying for a change.
Receive the Babe within your Heart.
Beg Him forever stay.
©2010 Joann Nelander
To kiss the whole world,
To scoop it close in wild embrace,
To feel its heart beat pulsing as my own,
Its passion and its pain,
To hug it closer still,
Letting its cry touch me,
To bring it through the wall of my own flesh,
Deep into my sol where spirits intertwine,
I want to.
c 1984 Joann Nelander
Oh, I’ve waken to new sunshine of dawns risen o’er the hills.
I’ve swum in quivering rivers, and climbed in flight as gulls.
I’ve shown bright with each moonlight, and fallen with each star.
I’ve feathered clouds with soft down and sprinkled rain afar,
I’ve snuggled to a blade of grass, and clutched a rose as dew.
I’ve painted rainbows ‘cross the sky and lavished them with hr.
I’ve suckled sweetness from a bloom and fluttered free to soar.
I’ve slept beneath the Tree of Life,
and dreamed these dreams before.
c 1984 Joann Nelander
