Stirring, Sterling

 
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STIRRING, STERLING

Is a spoon just a handy kitchen tool,

A stirring stick,
Or a utensil to eat with?

Well, yes, but ah, much more.
It can stir up great concoctions
With delightful tastes
To tantalize the tongue.
Its appearance can seem bit like sterling silver
(even if only forged of stainless steel).

 A clean spoon left after a meal
Might just look like part of the clutter
Left behind on a table. 
But oh, if the light is just right,
If this sometimes mundane object is glimpsed by an artist –
Maybe made part of some re-arrangement --
 Then textures, patterns, designs emerge,
Gloriously pleasing to the eye.

May I be a stirring stick in God’s hands.
Not mundane, but beauty directed by him.
May I feed others his bounty-feast.

My patterns and textures and designs shine out
When the Lord takes this spoon in hand.
Oh, what is he stirring with me,
To beautify his world,
To comfort, cheer, or show others who he is?
God values me!  He says he sees the Christ in me!
May the durable but ordinary steel in me
Be as precious as sterling silver –
Not because of anything I do, but because
He has already given his complete self to me.

(c) 2013 by Marilee Miller

This post is shared with "The Wellspring" Playdates with God

More Broken Glass

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More broken glass.  More beauty.  More shine.  Just looking is enough.  Words aren't needed to refresh my joy!

                                           These 4 images are copyrighted.  All rights reserved.

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This post is shared with Laura Boggess' blog:

Psalm 27:4-5

This post is shared with Laura Boggess' "Playdates with God"

God Has Designs on Me

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God Has Designs on Me

CD disks are shiny silver.  Reflective of the light or atmosphere around them.  Most people simply throw them away when they’re no longer needed for their computer data.  However, surely something so beautiful cries out to be used in some way – perhaps gathered into an art-design.   Bottlecaps are ubiquitous, but more than that – they are fashioned wonderfully.   Often made from inexpensive materials.  Many are tossed out after being used to protect the contents inside bottles or jars.  But their roundness, and sometimes ridgy modeled edges, may also contribute to the elements for design.

God sees the shiny silver places in us, even at times when we don’t think we have – or ARE – anything of lasting value.  He knows that we, capable of reflecting his light, can remain both useful and beautiful.  He sees the circling parts of us that we disdain as not being worth much.   And then declares that we are “Accepted in the Beloved”, and “Adopted into God’s own family.”

The Lord may also re-color my habits, and traits until they’re most pleasing to him.  Or maybe he’ll emphasize certain lines or character to bring out a whole new aspect of my life‘s design.

How incredible it seems, that the high God who created the spectacular universe also sees me, in Christ, as beautiful, wonderful.  If I turn to him and trust his Word, he says he’s given me his robe of righteousness.  He “joys over me with singing.”  “We are gifts of God that he delights in.”

I’m so thankful that God Has Designs on Me!

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This post is shared with L.L. Barkat  "Seedlings in Stone" and Laura Boggess' "Playdates with God"

A Face of Beauty

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A FACE OF BEAUTY

A face of beauty,
Gentle doll head,
Softened features,
Smooth and refined.
Elegant face,
With lips sweetly defined.

I’ve draped her
With exotic fabric:
Elegant scarf sublime.
Ah, to think this doll,
With head of sweet beauty,
Is mine, all mine!

The invisible God,
Mighty, but whom we can’t see,
Has made a face of visible beauty
Extending all over our Earth.
Oh, hasn’t he been kind?
And he created humans
To sweetly create
Elegances to touch our mind.

Thank you Lord, for a doll
With a face of beauty, and
For my own sweetly softened features
When I contemplate this little elegance, prime.
My heart swells: I appreciate
The God who invented us all,
And made us co-creators of beauty.
“Surely the presence of God is in this place.”
And I’m washed clean in worship of him, the Divine.

( c) 2012 by Marilee Miller


This post is also shared with L.L. Barkat’s
“Seedlings in Stone" and Laura Boggess’
“Playdates with God."

 

FULFILLMENT

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FULFILLMENT

So many dreadful things are happening in this poor, tired world;
Many lives are being turned upside-down.
Constant bad news is enough to make us fearful creatures,
Unsure whether we can survive,
Even when we try to believe God knows what he’s doing,
That he “knows our frame is dust”
Yet we can’t seem to help our timidity,
But must only keep permitting him to be the fulfillment of Christ within us.
To remember that he counts our hours and our days.

The transparent bottle, before, held dishwashing soap;
The first two rinses were myriads of tiny crowded bubbles,
But the third rinse created a few large and sparkly cells,
Also a crown-like medallion of wonder.
Ephemeral, fleeting soap bubbles
Gleaming in the midst of wearying kitchen choring;
Lustrous designs influenced by the shape of the bottle.

My heart soars again,
My trust of God rebounds no end!
If his natural laws for this Earth
Can bring forth beauty out of nothing-much,
Then let me no more be a fearful creature,
But instead believe that I/we will survive
And live forever with the Lord;
He promised! We are influenced by the shape of his clear Bottle.
His love gently holds our human fragile vessels,
To bring forth the beauty of Christ-in-you-and-me.
Let me have faith that God really does know the perfect way
To transform the wide world, and you, and me!

Copyright 2011 by Marilee Miller


This post is shared with L. L. Barkat's
On, In, and Around Mondays


And with Laura Boggess'
Playdates with God