Tag: faith

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.

D. G. Vachal (c) 2012, 2025

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.

D. G. Vachal © 2025


Image by Mohamad Hasan @pixabay

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.

D. G. Vachal © 2015, 2025

Image by pladicon2012acacias@pixabay

Silence Among the Lilies: A Summer Sonnet

Silence Among the Lilies:  A Summer Sonnet

She walks in silence among the lilies
dressed in white against the purple twilight
as verse and chapter fade into the night,
lost chords of song, unfinished symphonies,
jigsaw puzzles of life’s perplexities —
time to let go what once was held so tight
let darkest hours await for gleams of light
when morning breaks with possibilities.

I bask in the linen warmth of summer
rejoicing with the creatures of the field
on a warm July I will remember
when doors closed shut, familiar pathways sealed
I look to topaz days of November
to start anew, heart’s joy will I not yield.

D. G. Vachal © 2024

Image by Ox Coffe @pixabay

A Tale of the Lost Leather Wrist Bag

A Tale of the Lost Leather Wrist Bag

The air was a white, pearlescent haze as I walked upon the street cobblestones along some quaint shops in a New England village. A small leather bag hanged from my right wrist and in it were my credit cards, driver’s license, passport, and some dollar bills. I felt uncomfortable with the small bag as it was not the shoulder bag I usually carry around.

After walking a while, I sought refuge in a furniture store where I could rest my aching feet. It was then when I noticed that my little leather bag was no longer around my wrist. Suddenly I felt a whirlwind of panic — I have lost the objects of my identity!  In the midst of my bewilderment, a kind, middle-aged lady approached me and I told her my plight.  With a sweet, soothing voice she said, “My dear, everything can be replaced”.

I blinked and rubbed my eyes. It was all a dream.   

The leather wrist bag flashed in my mind and immediately I was smacked with a shock of recognition: it was the exact same bag my father had given me to hold my passport, plane ticket and three single dollar bills when I left home decades ago to pursue graduate studies in a foreign land.

All I owned when I embarked on the plane were three single dollar bills, a few clothes in a small suitcase, and my name.

In a faraway land, God has faithfully provided for me through the promise of each new day, especially through difficult circumstances, across the landscapes of the seasons and the years.

In this life I can easily misplace so many worldly “things” which can be replaced. What I cannot lose is the essence of who I am as a child of God. Though the seedling has grown into a strong, tall tree which blossoms every spring, I am that same young lady who left everything behind, flew towards the stars, crossed oceans and mountains, to pursue a dream.

D. G. Vachal © 2024

Image by Kanenori @ Pixabay