A Blessing for the Weary

I bless you with a spirit born upon spring

opening into the delight of a thousand buds

intent on sap and light.

I bless you with eyes that open on waking,

lapsing into dreams that take you

rippling back and forth from Heaven to earth.

I bless you with the memory of your

most beautiful days with no regret to accompany,

the refrains of your most favourite songs.

I bless you with a yes for all your no's

and a wide open expanse breaking out

inside of your soul.

I bless you with a hurling of old stale deeds

into the sea of no beginning, no end

and the forgetting of what is wrong.

I bless you with the small things 

revealing to you great mysteries,

a spiralling mathematical shell.

I bless you to once again feel your inspiration

a tide determined, with the determination

of dawn and the colours of earth turning into the sun.

I bless you with sleep uninterrupted,

with doubts appeased and hope beating with the blood

through every one of your arteries and veins.

I bless you to be able to see gratitude

and feel it on every breath, peel off every mask,

every label and step out in your brand-new skin, astonished.

Jenneth Graser

Photography Linus Nylund Unsplash

We Have Found a Good Home

Our hands lay palms upon knees
and we have rested.

Breath upon breath
and we have listened.

Hope leads to greater hope
and we have moved quietly.

It all comes to us gradually
that we belong.

We have searched
until we realise we are found.

We knock
and the door opens wide.

We have stopped looking
for meaning elsewhere.

We have found a good home
here.

Jenneth Graser

Photography Arno Smit

Psalm of the Night Watches

I observe the breathing of my heart
as I lie on my bed through the night watches.

In combination with the air you give,
I breathe also in other realms.

I am alive in every part of this marvellous body
you have created.

I take in every moment,
searching my heart in the silence.

What sacrifices do you desire?
It is these I offer up to you with both hands trusting.

When many voices all over the world
clamour for any amount of good,
it is the light of your face that will continue to flame.

It is a greater abundance that I will find
in my soul where you meet with me,
than in the wealth of many houses combined.

I am safe in this love and will tarry here.

My meditation becomes sleep.
My sleep becomes rest
as your dreams ripple across the face of the night.

Amen.

Jenneth Graser

Great Shield

Great Lifter of my Head,
I have been answered from your mountain.

There have been too many questions
without answers.

The load has been heavy to carry
and I don't feel that easy yoke you promised.

It is time to shed the weight of many years.

You enwomb me in the circle of your great shield
of arms, a spilling of glory.

As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forevermore.

I will enter the deliverance
that streams from your holiness.

You have quietened me into sleep that gives rest.
I awaken into grace without fear.

It is in your blessings that I will find refuge.

Amen.

Resting Seat

There are many things that could be said,
many that could be done.

Mountains to climb, up to the very top,
lists of the bucket kind.

A feeling of to-do lingers at the fringes of the day
as we drop exhausted into bed.

And Lord you are calling us,
you are calling us still...

Come my Beloved,
into a time outside of time.

Come to the resting seat in the garden
of my habitation.

There are no nagging voices or things to be done.

Here, there is presence that guides
everything you do on earth.

Listen to my voice, put on the music, lay aside your rushing.

Move into the pace of ease where my Spirit speaks
strength into your frame.

And whatever you need to face,
we will do it together.

Jenneth Graser

"My lover is mine, and I am his.
Nightly he strolls in our garden,
Delighting in the flowers
until dawn breathes its light and night slips away."

Song of Songs 2:16 MSG

Photography - Jenneth Graser

Listen to Ruth Fazal - instrumental violin album - Songs from the River 2

Kingdom Without Walls

You wake on dreams

reserved for such a time as this -
messages written on your listening soul.

Under stars not often seen
you rest beside the waters deep,
where springs unblocked have risen in the night.

The river has swept
the pathway of your travels clean.

You find a banquet lush
on tables laid beneath the trees.

Leaves have formed a canopy
over dreamers spilling wisdom
from the cup.

On each note of invitation,
a secret name engraved
calls forth the spirit, heart and mind.

We are seeking for what we already have,
buried vast within.

X marks the spot
on a kingdom without walls
inside, alive and well.

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 21 Prompt - park
Five Minute Friday

Artist - Cliff Briggie

Listen to Stargazer by John Belt

Rest in the Centre of Things - Five Minute Friday

Under the river, the riverbed
Under the mountain, cavernous rooms.
Under my mind, my heart rests.

Beneath the roots, the water
Under the waterfall, the pool so deep.
Under the sea, great darkness in crevices.

Under my mind, my mouth, my speech
Observations of word and thought.
Under the boat, a rudder.

Beneath the hen, chicks are warmed
Under the feathers, the skin.
Below the clouds, the rain falls.

Beneath the surface of appearances
The reality abides -
Underneath the symptoms, the source.

Under the heart, the Godhead hides
At rest in the centre of things.

At rest in the centre of things.

Jenneth Graser

Exploring the Invitation of Jesus

Ever since I don't know, I have been drawn to prayer and the rest of Jesus.  But when you are a Mom of three little kiddies under the age of 5, you sometimes wonder how you are ever going to find the time?  Real time to spend with Jesus.  Like not groggy waking up, forcing open the eyelids after a night of up and down to spend 10 minutes in the word kind of time - on a good day!  Like not closing your eyes for a few moments getting a prayer in edge-ways only to be asked, "Mommy, why are your eyes closed?" 

I am sure that God meant for us to experience his presence in the day to day of life.  And I am sure that he is so creative he can come up with a great variety of ways to know relationship with him and that it doesn't always have to look like the traditional version of what "Quiet Time" brings to mind.  Waking up early, quiet space to spend time uninterrupted with your Saviour?  Uninterrupted is a rare beautiful thing in my life at the moment.  Hence the desire to open up a blog discussion on prayer for the busy ones.  Prayer for the run-around-in-the-rat-race but longing-for-Jesus children.  So I am going to do a series on the exploration of prayer and I welcome all your input.  Every one of your - this is how I do it stories.  All of your ways you find to "Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

For starters, I open up with the Secret Garden:
I have been given an ornate and antique key.  I hold it around my neck.  There is a secret garden that is for me alone to access.  The door is covered with creepers, but I lift the creepers and unlock the door, turn the handle, and... I'm in.  Jesus is always waiting for me.  The garden is eternal, because it holds the past, present and future of my walk with God.  I sit on a bench next to Jesus and we hold each other's hands and look into each other's faces.  There is so much to be said without saying a word.  Sometimes I kneel before him with my head in his lap and pour out my tears, concerns and sorrows.  Other times we go for a walk and he shows me what is growing, what is being pruned, cut, weeded, what is being sown.  There is intimacy as we walk hand in hand.  There is sharing, heart to heart.

What does your Secret Place with God look like?