Categories
Devotional Making Disciples

Ruin and glory

Isaiah. Prophet and poet. Master of prose. Skillfully taking us to ruin and glory.

“The city of chaos is shattered; 
Every house is closed to entry.
In the streets they cry for wine.
All joy grows dark; 
Earth’s rejoicing goes into exile.
Only desolation remains in the city;
its gate has collapsed in ruins.”
Isaiah 24:10-12

Well-placed words. And we see the broken place. Grieve the curse that consumes the earth and its inhabitants. “…for they have transgressed teachings, overstepped decrees, and broken the permanent covenant” (24:5).

Ruins. Image by Micheile Henderson, Unsplash Photos.
Categories
Devotional

Refining

Tomorrow. Next month. Next year. 
Detailed future schedules, meticulously stored in digital calendars. 
Vanish. Into thin air. Digital air.
As a corona virus disrupts. Delays. Deletes.
And thieves break in.
Whispering fear. Stealing contentment.
This confining space. A refining place. Reveals. 
Makes plain where best-laid-plans put down roots.
And expectations take hold. 

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city.…Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be!…”
James 4:14,15

2020. Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.
Categories
Devotional Making Disciples Memoir

Fragrance

Morning exercise at sunrise. Walking at a fast clip, tuned in to a podcast. Suddenly, there it is. Fragrance. 

Distinct. Sweet. I don’t even have to look.

Honeysuckle.

Stopping, I turn and see. Down the the slope. A riot of honeysuckle blooms. Taking over the thicket. 

Honeysuckle. Image by Dieter Staab at Pixabay.