faith – lilies, sparrows and grass

The Years, My Friend

The Years, My Friend

The years, my friend, have not been kind
upon your marble face —

I hear the river songs
tinkle with the cymbals,
I see your eyes shrivel
like unpicked grapes on the vine,
your mouth a wounded cherry
pecked by restless robins.

Take my hand, my friend,
let us go to the calling fields
that blaze with diamonds
under the eternal skies,
to the orchards in the midst of winter,
where leafless branches stand dauntless
in the endless cold,
telling jubilant tales
in the blizzard of their days —

Hearken to the legends
of root, of bud, of sun,
and to the promise
(believe the promise)
that warmth and springtime
will return,
(they always return)
once again.

*** Photography by Farhad

The Amazing Gift of Eternal Life

^“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” John 17:3

Life in this world is temporary and limited, but there is a life different from the mere existence that most human beings can comprehend. It is an amazing life, and it can be said that the reason the Son of God came into the world was to offer this kind of life to those who believe in Him. It is the gift of a life that lasts forever, measured not simply by its duration, but by its intense and distinctive quality.

Eternal life brings us into fellowship with God. Into this life are given the exceeding great and precious promises of God, enabling us to be partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). When we are born again through faith in Christ, we do not simply become “better persons”; we share and participate in the very life and nature of God: we are in God, and God is in us, a mystical conception and a reality that is staggering to the human mind.

It is a life of purpose, sharing in God’s interests and objectives, whereby we become partners in God’s great plan of salvation for the world. We feel God’s grief over sin and see evil as a real force that manipulates the lives of mankind in their enmity against God. Hence we live to push forward the kingdom of light against the kingdom of darkness.

God becomes very real to us. We are steadily aware and certain of His presence. It is a life of communion with God and knowing Him as our Father, recognizing that we are never alone because God is constantly with us and that our lives are in His hands.

Eternal life is knowing God. What could be more amazing than that?

* Reference: Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Fellowship With God, Crossway Books, Wheaton, Illinois, 1993, pp. 56-85

D. G. Vachal 2012, 2025
* Photography: Sunrise by Knowles Gallery @ Flickr cc

The Teacup of Today

“This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24

In the midst of a frenzied afternoon at work today, I paused to read an email from my daughter Amy:

“I’ve been thinking about this quote a lot lately: “This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” The last two words, “in it”, are what have me thinking. The phrase makes it seem like it’s a special place – a porcelain cup, specially made, specially prepared – to rejoice, to revel, to live fully in — when you are in something like a cup of tea, surrounded.”

Any given second, any given breath, we are within the walls of a day. We can’t see tomorrow – and so we can only treat it with what we can’t see – with hope (but how great is our hope when we think about Jesus)? We see only today, and our hands, and our feet, and our loved ones, and whatever else God has given us for today. “

What Amy wanted to tell me is that today is not only a special time, but a unique and wondrous place designed by God for us to live and breathe in.

The porcelain teacup of today.

I smile at the thought of today and of pink porcelain cups.

Yet Will I Trust In Thee

Yet Will I Trust in Thee – A Sonnet

“Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.” Job 13:15 KJV

Though Thou slay me, yet will I trust in Thee
Thou holdest my fragile world in Thy hand,
The tides and seasons turn at Thy command —
Speck of dust am I in eternity,
Bestowed a moment’s breath on earth to be —
The wildest joys came I to comprehend,
Life’s strange conundrums yet to understand,
Someday revealed in immortality.

I have no stake in my own life but Thine,
Possessing nothing in this world but Thee
Thou sittest in the altar of my heart
The ever purest love I know is mine
Through hail and thunderstorms I have one plea
That from Thy house I never will depart.

To the Living Among Us All

To the Living Among Us All

My soul dwells secure
in pleasant mountains
Creator-carved,
where cloud-sent rains
descend to quench
desiccated tongues
and rays of molten sun
embrace the evening-cold
shoulders —

What little matters to some
are minuscule,
momentary dewdrops
adrift
in endless possibilities,
whirling from the gift
of measured life-breaths
apportioned
to the living among us all —

every sacred
miraculous moment
of what we call
today.

Image by pladicon2012acacias@pixabay

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