MYSTERY OF MOTHER

Can there be the Child without the Mother?
Can heaven be grasped and pulled to earth?
Can heaven enter a heart without the heart’s consent?

Mystery of Love.
Ever present,
Ever growing.

Wholly Other,
Immanent and dear,
God made manifest

Fruit on the tree,
Following on winter’s death.
Sweet Mystery of Love.

© 2016 Joann Nelander

The Embrace

Clutching You to my heart,
My sins before me,
I make Your Death,
My dying,
And find my life.
You give Yourself to me.
You give Yourself for me.
I hold Your cold,
Your bruised and bloodless Body
As I pray.
Wiping the spittle from Your Face,
I behold the Man,
My sins before me always,
I cling to Your Words.
“Father forgive.”

Now for Eternity

All days have led to this day.

Yesterdays march up to the edge in Time,

But cannot enter upon my Now.

As precursors, they stand,

Peering onto this Today,

Blind as bats.

Their edges approach,

But halt at the Present.

Here, I reign with my will.

If all my mistakes

Shout for change,

Am I now the fool
Who fails to learn?

With the sun,

I am begun.

Eternity beckons me,

Where Time cannot go,

Invites, “Come.”

He, Who sails on Eternity’s Wing,

Would be my Mender,

Not in a breaking of the Past,

But a knitting of it,

A seamless clothe,

As His very own.

The morrow begins as a Way I choose;

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Are gift to my being,

And beginning in this Now,

I am His.

Just One Glance

Although, I have been resting in Your
Heart,
Safe in Your holy embrace
Throughout this night,
You have been waiting for this moment,
When my eyes open,
Hoping I would look at You,
And return Your loving glance.

Heartbeat

In praise and thanksgiving for the first beat
Of the Sacred Heart of Him
Who was born,
Savior and King.

As today, new life is conceived,
And secreted away in a woman’s womb,
Known only to God in darkness,
As it’s rhythms begin a song of praise
Ever so silent.

Then the moment of joyous awakening,
A singular throb sends a resounding shiver
Through amniotic waters,
Alerting angels of one more heart
Ready to join their chorus of hosannas.

Sounds full of thankfulness,
A Eucharist of being, and becoming,
Ever so sacred,
To the glory of God.

Milk and Honey

I hear of folly and fowl play.
I look to You,
And remember Your Cross.

The psalmist sang of the Dark Valley.
Yet knew Your Presence and Your shield.

Here in my world,
Reign and sup with me.

Hope surrounds me.
As I am Yours,
Beloved child in sweet surrender.

Even Pharaoh served Your purpose.
His obstinacy but a tool in Your Hand.
The Red Sea became a bridge.
Joining heaven to a People.

Times change.
Passover continues.
Your Will,
My Land of Milk and Honey.

©2016 Joann Nelander