Tag: Inspiration

From a Slow Heart to a Burning Heart

And they said to one another, “Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked with us on the way and while He opened to us the Scriptures?” Luke 24:32

On Resurrection Day, two men’s hearts were changed on the road to Emmaus.  At the outset, when Jesus met them on their journey, He described them as “fools and slow of heart to believe”.

They were men who had slow, sluggish hearts:  so engulfed were they in recounting the terrible things that happened to Jesus two days before, mulling over how He was crucified and put to death by the chief priests and rulers.  Jesus, the One they thought would redeem Israel from all her enemies and woes, the earthly Messiah who would bring peace and prosperity to their homeland. Now their hopes were demolished.

They had a different vision and all they deliberated upon was Christ’s misfortune, overlooking what they had heard that very same day, that early in the morning, certain women went to the sepulcher, saw a vision of angels and an empty grave. Slow and heavy hearts dwell upon the worst things that have happened and never get past these events.

As Jesus walked with them and discussed the Scriptures, starting from Moses and all the prophets, slowly a kindling in their hearts began, and around sunset, when they approached Emmaus, their hearts were burning … “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

What a tremendous transformation, such that after Jesus disappeared from their midst at Emmaus, “on the same hour”, they excitedly headed all the way back to Jerusalem, to walk another seven miles, in the darkness of evening, to be with the eleven apostles.  They could not contain themselves, they had so much fire within them, their hearts were raging to deliver one message: “The Lord is risen indeed”.

Hearts slow to believe were transformed to quickened, burning hearts of faith when Jesus walked with them, talked with them, and opened the Scriptures to them.

 

Originally posted 2012-04-07 22:14:22.

“Of Bread and Hunger”

by D. G. Vachal 2
The days ride the chariot of the whirlwind:
tomorrow’s sun is yet to be appointed —
you hold this moment’s gold, this second’s gem.

Today is bread that feeds your hunger,
strength for constricted hands
that throb to open to those in need,
(always, there are those in need)
bestow kindness even to those unkind.

Give, give of this bread,
this bread of today,
each broken crumb of every fleeting second,
scatter with abandon to reach
the hungry mouths,
even the birds of the air,
the beasts of the field —

As you give of your daily bread,
verily you will be fed.

D. G. Vachal © 2014

“Swept by Surprise to Moonlit Shores”


Swept by Surprise to Moonlit Shores

Is there a weeping too deep
for the knowing,
when beauty seeps into the open
pores of the soul,
descends to the ocean floors
of our breathing,
swept by surprise to moonlit shores
by irregular tides —

Beauty astounds,
ruffles the colors of the corals,
disrupts the nettled pearling
of the oysters,
arrests
the wanderings of hermit crabs,
the tapestral flowering of anemones
upon the glaucous-velvet rocks —

Underneath, where it is very deep,
the blinding light dazzles,
it reaches upwards
to interminable heights,
from the tide pool to the far distance
where ancient stars blossom
incandescent pink —

Tell me,
are there waters warm enough,
is there salt enough
to mold the tears that fall
from the wonder of it all?

by D. G. Vachal © 2013

Author’s Note:  My allusion to looking from the tide pool to the stars is inspired by  John Steinbeck’s words in his book “Log of the Sea of Cortez: “It is advisable to look from the tide pool to the stars and then back to the tide pool again.”

*** Image by Luis Argerich @ Flickr Commons