Oh Love that hears before I speak that provides before I need: like sunrise making its way around the world until it’s time for me to be awakened.   Unlike the unjust judge, You answer from compassion and kindness, rewarding perseverance and faith with fullness.   As You do not withhold stars from the night sky, nor sun from the day, neither do You withhold light  provision  direction  warmth from Your children, nor love from the one who approaches You.   Father of lights, hold me between sunrise and noontime, opening Your Word to my spirit, like doves released to the heavens, free to experience the...

Savior,   I need renewal like the sunrise, that often.   Help me see it in all areas stale or stagnate help me see it in all its forms:   like fresh snow under sunshine like the crocus through the frost like spring birds chirping at midnight.   Make these dead seeds in my heart live again, flowering into something new, petals facing the light, letting in You—   always available.   Sweep across my horizon like windswept sunbeams after clean rain.   Not retained, unconfined. Blasting from darkness. Powerful, vibrant with resurrection.   O Lord of Renewal, Amen....

Jesus, Redemption, Redeemer—   in You is my everything.   My failures defeated, my sin forgiven. My fears calmed, my weakness strengthened.   My deaths turned into resurrection— new beginnings, new dreams, new life.   Stir my heart, Lord Jesus, to pursue You more deeply more faithfully more passionately. I long to meet with You in the mornings and hear Your voice clearly, my heart spilling with praise.   I long to worship You in the evenings, refreshed with Your truth, closing my day with peace and prayer.   Help me see all around me Your invitations to relationship, to conversation and joy, to...

brown oak leaves finger the slender grass, deep with memory   poplar leaves in varying shades of ochre pile calf- and ankle- deep over the terraced deck   the pointed red stars of Japanese maples plaster the sidewalks like confetti after a parade   old trees—sycamore, maple, cherry and apple—   arching over creeks and country roads, marching up and down the hills, strip in the breeze, holding onto both gold and pennies, sifting their treasure in measured sums   my hometown in autumn counts the years one leaf at a time— meted memories, dropped tokens of every forgotten summer   each leaf is one I’ve...

I miss the glass stars we hung in the kitchen window at Christmas time,   blue, orange, red, the big one in the middle with the candle.   Light of the old year gone, candlewick spent. Decorations and ornaments put away the last few days of December   stripping the old year bare, back to its unadorned state. The holidays are like dresses, fancy, glamorous, long and covering. Fireworks that illumine what—the year going or the one coming?   We won’t know until this December 31, when the same window stars have come and gone once more   and this year’s white wax is spent.  ...