Tag: Grace

A Wink, A Blink, And A Nod From Heaven

~ Elizabeth W. Marshall ~ 1 Comment

Confusion bends the heart and warps the spirit.  And we cry for peace and we cry for understanding. And the tears like cripples crawl wobbly down the slow rocky path from the eyes  to the chin.

But oh, how His word soothes the soul.

The soothing repetition of God’s word sings sweet comfort to confusion in our world.  Over and over it speaks sweet truth.

And slowly confusion bows to peace.  And peace brings comfort and a restoration of hope.

I stare at the computer screen and try to unscramble the code that asks me if I am spam, am I human.  Confusion looks like that.  Letters warped, unrecognizable, sideways turned, oddly shaped, gross distortion.

And confusion blurs the focus, like this intentional  filter questioning before allowing you to pass go, continue on to the next step.  This code to filter out the bad, eyes strain at the distortion to make sense and attempt to get it right.  To straighten out and make it plain and clear.

Confusion rocks our word leaving a seasick queasy, lost and vulnerable uneasiness in our spirit.

I step outside and throw myself on white rope hammock, fall into the arms of the Master softly swaying on the netted bed.  He has caught me.  I am His .  My gaze goes up.

It always heals, this black lit sky presenting one ultra brilliant star, like eye wink from Him.  Winking, blinking Mercy.  Assuring me there is a way out of misunderstanding and confusion.

The looking up always restores Hope.  The gazing skyward always meets my eyes with Mercy.  In the moment of raw human need.  And raw human heart.  He stares back down to a hurting child, swaying slow and steady under His sky at night and whispers calm in the black of night.

And because He loves so deep and wide and all black sky cavernous, I speak apology.

I know the path out starts here.  So what love falls out of the sky at night to a busted heart seeking solace on the ropes of life, in the woven hammock must be extended horizontal now.  Given out as freely here as it came down from the heavenly eye wink from the Merciful one.

Confusion rocks.  But He steadies.  He gives gift of solid rock to stand firm upon.

Confusion blurs who we are, what we are, and WHOSE we are.  He loves through a lense of everlasting love, with a clear and pure abiding Love, always and everytime.

Confusion breeds pride and anger.  He gazes down with unfathomable Love and ushers in a spirit of humility, peace, and calm.

Steps from the front door of my heart and my home I run into His arms, caught in the black of night.  Tears wiped by the One who extends Grace upon Grace upon Grace.

Winking and blinking and saying from His throne, sweet words of Comfort soothing the soul.  Tender words of Mercy mending the brokeness.  Gentle words re-building Trust.

One black night, one sweet star, and one Tremendous God.

One fresh start with new Mercies leading the way.

Seeing More Clearly Through A Lense of Grace and Mercy

~ Elizabeth W. Marshall ~ Leave a comment

Blinded by the light.  Its difficult to see.  Feeling unsafe behind the wheel.  Hoping to be home and safe soon.  I am vulnerable and I am challenged. The eye doctor dilates my eyes and every ray of sun causes a wince, bringing hand to eye for cover and protection. I am not seeing well.  I am not seeing clearly.  I want to go home. I know this is temporary.  I am certain my vision will improve.  I’ve been told it will take two hours.  But in this time I am reminded of what it feels like to see unclearly, to see the world in a blur, missing detail.  Things are askew.  Things are murky, cloudy and off a beat a bit. There are so many times when I do not see the what’s right there. Someone has unspoken pain and I do not see the what’s behind the surface. Someone is struggling with a life circumstance and I do not see clearly the effect it has on words and actions. There is a hidden fact or emotion which I do not see, cannot see, or even will not see. Things are hidden away.  Buried down deep. Out of sight. Out of plain view.  Things that require sweet Mercy and Grace to see with tenderness and understanding.  Like my dilated eyes preventing clarity, the blur of the eyes of the heart can slant and cripple,distort  the ability to see with Kingdom Eyes.   “You can’t go on ‘seeing through’ things forever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. To ‘see through’ all things is the same as not to see”. — C.S. Lewis, “The Abolition of Man”. But when I put on the lense of Grace and my heart looks out through a lense of Mercy, I begin to see with understanding and love.  The facts or circumstances causing the blurry are less important.  The pieces of the puzzle missing matter less now.  My eyes are more aligned with the heart of God.  Mercifully I see.  The blur of pain causing a skewed understanding fades when I look in love.  His love.  Handicapped on my own.  Unable to see clearly without Him.  Needing the corrective lense on life of the spirit of God, needing a shift in my fleshy perspective, needing a glimpse of His people through the eyes of Jesus.“The litmus test of our love for God is our love of neighbor.” — Brennan Manning.

I want to see clearly, lovingly, tenderly, mercifully.  And I want to see past and through the circumstances- both my own and those of others.  I want to see the hard to see places and yet see nothing, embracing and loving the hard and the unlovable.  Loving in an all out way where all becomes invisible in love but that which matters.  They are my family, my friends, my neighbors. I want to love Gracefully and Mercifully in the blur of life, the blur of pain, the blur of hurt, and the blur of circumstances.

Eyes of Mercy and Eyes of Grace shift perspective, shift view, and opinion and judgement.  A lense of Grace and a lense of Love allow compassion and tenderness to focus the eyes of the heart lovingly, kindly, and oh so sweetly to see Beauty each and every time.  To see the shadow of the Cross and the bright clear love reigning down from Heaven.

My vision is still off.  I feel the sting of the blurr of my vision being manipulated by the doctor.  And I know how fragile the eyes are, especially the eyes of my heart.  I know how quickly I am prone to look out not in love, but in judgement, in criticism, in hyper-sensitivity and without empathy.

So I lean hard on Him as a blind woman leans on a cane.  Crippled am I, handicapped am I without any strength on my own.  With the vision of a sinner, blind to others, stumbling into others, running hard into pain and causing it myself, I need the Shephard’s staff.

Mercifully He offers.  Mercifully He leads.

Amazing Grace.  A view of life like no other, through the lense of Grace.

Wrap Up A Word in A Poem, Wrap up A Word In Love

~ Elizabeth W. Marshall ~ 4 Comments

(Today’s post dedicated to my mother Maggie on this, her birthday.  She has taught me to love and hold on to Words.)

Moments like pebbles jet- skim over water, thrown out hard,  fast from child’s hand, speed along, bump, skip along. Ripple space, dent, ripple path. Fall hard.

Speedy jump all bullet shot out of angled hand to delight.   Race on. 

And words thrown out, caught in heart nets. Tossed,  captured,   pondered. We grab, wrestle with these letters all clustered up, woven in wonder.  Knitted for warmth, encouragement, teaching, healing. Put forth for comfort and hope.

 Grab hold of time, wrap it in words with love. Cherish its beauty, its singular lightening fast, quick flash, steamy quick rising temporariness. Hold hard to words telling story of moment.

Put a word on a wound.  Place a word on pain , wrap it in God-breathed, God-given hope. Send it out in a prayer built of words, fragile and sweet.

Put a word on joy, put a word on wonder.  Cinch it in silver shiny wrapping with bow of beauty.  Deliver it in Mercy, signed with signatures of Grace.

 Speak them, write them,  sing them, show them , shout them, whisper them,
sling  them– those grace-notes, love-notes, words dredged from deep heart places.

Watch it , this word chosen in care, delivered in love. Watch it skim across the hearts of one in need. Leave a little love dent, a kind ripple, and fall hard on the soft places of the inside place.

See hope take root.  And healing take place.

Words skipped all tippy toed school girl happy hopping poetic on the spaces of need. Choose them with care, toss them in love, your words, this Sabbath,  this day and every one given by Him.

Poetry most often communicates emotions, not directly, but by creating imaginatively the grounds for those emotions.  It therefore communicates something more than the emotion; only by means of that something does it communicate the emotion at all “–C.S. Lewis, “Studies in Words