Beauty Treatment

Of my Lutheran background
I truly miss the
celebration of the season of Lent
a time of preparation
and application
of myrrh
followed by sweet spices

Myrrh . . .
an oily extract from a bush
symbolic of the Holy Spirit
symbolic of grace
a healing salve
Hebrew word means “distilling in drops”

I picture an IV bag automatically dripping
myrrh, as needed,
for the dealings of God in our lives

Drip drip drip
our need for grace again
again and again

And we emerge with
a broken / surrendered
contrite
teachable
heart
having exchanged
our self life
for the Christ life
dying of carnal flesh
in exchange for the spiritual

Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean,
scrub me and I'll have a snow-white life.
Tune me in to foot-tapping songs,
set these once-broken bones to dancing.
Don't look too close for blemishes,
give me a clean bill of health.
God, make a fresh start in me,
shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
Don't throw me out with the trash,
or fail to breathe holiness in me.
Bring me back from gray exile,
put a fresh wind in my sails!
Give me a job teaching rebels your ways
so the lost can find their way home.
Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God,
and I'll sing anthems to your life-giving ways.
Unbutton my lips, dear God;
I'll let loose with your praise.
Going through the motions doesn't please you,
a flawless performance is nothing to you.
I learned God-worship
when my pride was shattered.
Heart-shattered lives ready for love
don't for a moment escape God's notice.
Psalm 51:16-17 Message Bible

Crown of Thorns

I stack chairs and straighten others
oblivious to what’s taking place around me
two of my sisters sit nearby
one quietly talking
the other listening, allowing space and time

the talking ebbs into
near silent tears
unleashed deep from within her soul

I’m drawn
sit down
pray quietly in the spirit
for my sister
hurting . . .
soul leaking down her face

The depth of her cry
strangely familiar
an echo of my own soul
not many months ago
but as I listened,
I realized
healing had peacefully arrived in my own soul
the scab replaced
with a scar of compassion

We prayed
continue to pray
for healing and wholeness
of her soul
provided by the crown of thorns
which pierced Jesus’ head

Easter . . .

"It wasn't so long ago
that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin.
You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living,
tell you how to live.
You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief,
and then exhaled disobedience.
We all did it,
all of us doing what we felt like doing,
when we felt like doing it,
all of us in the same boat.
It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper
and do away with the whole lot of us.
Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love,
he embraced us.
He took our sin-dead lives
and made us alive in Christ.
He did all this on his own,
with no help from us!
Then he picked us up
and set us down in highest heaven
in company with Jesus, our Messiah."

Ephesians 2:1-6
Message Bible