Refuge of Sinners

Refuge of Sinners

I sit in the sunshine of Your New Day.
Forgiveness has washed over me.
At Your Word,
Mercy has rained upon Your Beloved.

Hear now, You say to me:
You are safe, My little one.
You have chosen to hide yourself
In the Wound of My Sacred Heart.

The world about is cold and unholy,
Yet you are surrounded by angels of Light.
Warm and welcoming is the Living Flesh
That is your constant refuge.

I enfold you,
As you have  made My Body,
Your Food, your Heart,
Your own.

Copyright 2014 Joann Nelander

Seed of Hope

The seed is alive,
With the Future.
The seed
Buried seeking light.

The one Adam,
The store of generations,
Begetting,
But not solely of himself.

One alike in nature,
But unique to the task,
Played by his side,
The delight of Paradise.

Sin entered in.
Nature, sublime,
Met the devil in his slime.
Havoc and hell followed,
On a Fall
For the all,
Yet to be.

Generation,
Degeneration,
Retribution.
No restitution,
No remedy for institution.

Generations
Living under a curse,
Dying in time.
Eden lost,
Without return.

Until the One,
The sent
The holy.
Began His reign,
Faith born.
To invite again,
To turn again
From the mire!
Unto hope.

Confronting the curse
Hanging from the cross,
Accursed,
Becoming Sin,
Sin meeting its end
In Him.

Meeting His end
Defeating the end
To be the beginning,
First born of the Dead.

To be for us
To be forever New,
New life
New hope.

Finding Adam in his grave
Dry bones moved by the Spirit.
Rise with him.

A new beginning
Rising from death
To call all to life.

The life of Adam,
Born through the ages,
Played out in generations.
Out of one, many.

He, Christ,
Descending
Gathering ,
Mending,
All ascending ,
Captive to the Light.

The seed
Become
His Life,
The future without end,
Living life without end.

© 2016 Joann Nelander

Resting in Your Spirit

I am witness.
I am martyr.
You are silence in action,
No moving parts,
Yet accomplishing Your intent,
While I keep watch.
You rest upon Your Altar.
I rest in You.

You are Son.
You are Witness.
You are Martyr.
You are Living Testament,
Covenanting with Man,
Promising me.

Draw me.
Give me Your vision of holiness.
Cause me to desire.
Infuse wisdom
As answer to my pleading desire.

O, Happy Cause.
O, Moving Spirit.
Be one with the essence of me,
That fallen nature might drink
Of Your Eternal Spring.

By Joann Nelander
Copyright 2011
All rights reserved.

A Million Miracles Ride the Deep

A million miracles ride the deep,
And play beneath the surface
Of Your fury,
In fall of water,
Rounding o’er the rocks,
In rush and billows,
Froth and foam.

Swift river carry me
And write on my memory.
Though seated on the bank,
I sail in heart,
And hurry,
In your wake
Finding joy as a petal,
Skirting the obscured,
Dancing o’er temptation,
In an act of will,
To follow in Your stride,
O Master of the deep.

The glint of sun
In steady flash
To gild rocky edges
As You do my soul.
The wash of swift current,
Pouring joy as palpable
As bird song,
Swimming the swollen crowns,
Like ribbons of life,
Skimming hidden cliffs,
Caring and carrying me along.
Their path and destiny one,
In faith’s repose.

Let not the world
Still or interfere
To make me tarry,
When You bid me come,
Contemplate my end,
And sweet beginning.
One with Providence’s
Plan,
I fear not Thy wild ride.

A million miracles cry out to me
From the beauty
Of depth and mystery.
I am lost in Your Presence.
There You are
Smiling back at me.
I simply smile and gaze.
I am nothing and no one,
Yet You whisper,
In You and Yours,
I am more.

You sing to my soul,
And tell me beauty tales.
Of gaining all I leave behind
In Love’s pursuit.
Grace creates a place for me.
After the mind of God.
I surpass the wonders I behold.

Hold me in this instant,
To capture Paradise
For the journey onward,
Singularly one with everything,
And bound to all,
And none,
Save You.

©2013 Joann Nelander

My Sun

With the rising of each sun,
I seek the Sun of Justice,
That coming up over hill or horizon,
He might climb the sky,
Shattering my limits, my lacks,
And poor persuasions.

O, Conqueror of Death,
And King of New Day,
Let nothing deter
Your mounting my sky.

As nothing could chain You in the Tomb,
Or dissuade Your Rising,
To pick up Life,
And surrmount High Heaven,
Here, at my beginning,
Call me forth.
With the Force of the Commingled,
And Communal Love,
That begot Thee,
For I choose Thee,
Thou, Who gave my soul substance without Matter,
Spirit without Space,
Dependant, only on Thee,
My Champion.

Love begot Thee.
Loves conceives in His Knowing,
And Love,
Takes wing,
To welcome me,
One God,
Thee, My Three,
Now regarding me.

O, Sun of Justice,
Arise, and in me , ever be.

© 2017 Joann Nelander

I Am Mud

I am such a mess.
The rain falls on my soil,
And for a while I am mud.

No hint of fertility.
No hint of growth.
No hint of flowers.

Mud is self-forgetful,
A confusion of gift,
A profusion of promise.

The day will seed to my substance,
Serendipity and surprise,
Plantings for the morrow.

I shall lie here,
Loving my mud,
Waiting for the Sun.

© 2016 Joann Nelander