Repentance Tree Harvest

Matthew 3:8 "Produce fruit in keeping with repentance."

To follow the One Most Beloved,

also known as Familiar With Sorrow,

must I leave all I value in this life?

Must I give up today for tomorrow?

To follow the Only Begotten,

must I give up on having my own way?

Must I let go my will and desires

to take hold of Thy Will Be Done each day?

To live by the Word Become Flesh,

which became Word spat on, crucified,

must I live in full faithful obedience,

of the Spoken, the Suffering, the Died?

Must I follow by changing direction,

taking up the cross carved just for me,

picking fruit from the tree of repentance

for an offering worthy of Thee?

To follow the Way, Truth and Life,

must I step onto pathways unseen?

So I must, but with help of the Spirit,

go where Jesus before me has been.

-HJ Nov 21, 2010

I thought I saw a movement
Like something drifting by
While I worked near my window
With its cloudy autumn sky.

Too small for a falling leaf,
Too compact for a feather,
Too airy for a drop of rain:
Could it be a change in weather?

Was it a downy messenger,
A light and fluffy sign?
Could it be snow? The sparkly flakes
Declare it’s winter time!

To You Who Are Hurting



The intricacies of the eternal mind lean toward mercy;
the veins of the eternal heart run rich with love.

The Christ, when He didn't need to,
came to live in the hurting world.
Never was there such wounding.
Besides the nails, the torture of the cross:
the colossal burden of total darkness of spirit.
The light of God-connectedness
blocked off by the massive barricade of
rotting flesh piled up on His shoulders
in a daunting-to-anyone-less-than-God
nuisance ground of filth and shame.
The Christ, who didn't need to,
acquiesced and accepted,
became pain-sharer by becoming human,
and then pain-bearer by becoming debt-payer
in place of us, who richly earned it.
-HJ Nov 2010