Tag: Calvary

A Ceaseless Blessing

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When I saw the figure on the crown of the hill,
high above the city, standing perfectly still

against a sky so saturated with the late-
afternoon, late-summer Pacific light

that granules of it seemed to have come out
of solution, like a fine precipitate

of crystals hanging in the brightened air,
I thought whoever it was standing up there

must be experiencing some heightened state
of being, or thinking—or its opposite,

thoughtlessly enraptured by the view.
Or maybe, looking again, it was a statue

of Jesus or a saint, placed there to bestow
a ceaseless blessing on the city below.

Only after a good five minutes did I see
that the figure was actually a tree—

some kind of cypress, probably, or cedar.
I was both amused and let down by my error.

Not only had I made the tree a person,
but I’d also given it a vision,

which seemed to linger in the light-charged air
around the tree’s green flame, then disappear.
~Jeffrey Harrison, “The Figure on the Hill” from Into Daylight.

A tree on our hill broods over us
through the decades,
day and night,
standing firm through sunrises and sunsets,
snow and wind and rain and blistering sun.

It isn’t mistaken for a person or statue
yet stands in steadfast silence
amid the ever-changing backdrop
and drama of uncertain times.

May these ceaseless blessings ever flow,
bestowed unimpeded
of a Love that hung
from the limbs of a tree on the hill.






Listening to Lent — Don’t You Hear?

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Calvary, Calvary,
Calvary, Calvary,
Calvary, Calvary,
surely he died on Calvary.

Every time I think about Jesus,
every time I think about Jesus,
every time I think about Jesus,
surely he died on Calvary.

Don’t you hear the hammering?
Don’t you hear the hammering?
Don’t you hear the hammering?
Surely he died on Calvary.

Don’t you hear him calling Father?
Don’t you hear him calling Father?
Don’t you hear him calling Father?
Surely he died on Calvary.

Don’t you hear him say “It is finished?”
Don’t you hear him say “It is finished?”
Don’t you hear him say “It is finished?”
Surely he died on Calvary.

Make me trouble thinking ’bout dying,
make me trouble thinking ’bout dying,
make me trouble thinking ’bout dying,
surely he died on Calvary.

Jesus furnished my salvation.
Jesus furnished my salvation.
Jesus furnished my salvation.
Surely he died on Calvary.

Sinner, do you love my Jesus?
Sinner, do you love my Jesus?
Sinner, do you love my Jesus?
Surely he died on Calvary.

African-American Spiritual

 

“It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth
And when we come to it
To the day of peacemaking
When we release our fingers
From fists of hostility
And allow the pure air to cool our palms…”
~Maya Angelou

 

Christ released us
to unclench our fingers,
stop making fists,
to trust His way of making peace
through sacrifice.

Don’t I hear? Will I listen?