elisabethpike

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I’M MOVING!

I am no longer updating this blog! 

Please come and find me at https://lizpike.wordpress.com/

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dawn

It starts off

as the slightest lightening

in the colourless dark,

almost imperceptible at first

and then,

a little bolder,

and soon enough

the rose-gold glow

colours the sky

from east to west.

It starts out so small,

just a scratch of light

against the darkness,

but you know the might of the sun,

and you keep watching

as the dark is dissolved in to light.

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#40hope

Hope is that quiet shining thing, hidden at the very centre of us. It might be forgotten sometimes, or covered in dust and debris, it may be looked at with cynicism by others, by ourselves, even, but it remains; a coin, glinting in the soil, catching the light, catching your eye again, reminding you of the heart-bursting promise that is coming.

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#39wait

The two men on the road to Emmaus had forgotten how to wait, they had moved on too quickly to despair; 'We had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel', they said. They had already given up hope, had tossed it by the wayside, in favour of despair; perhaps it comes quicker, is easier to hold. But there is strength in waiting, in hearing a promise and planting it deep in your heart. There were those who lived like this, staring down old age and infertility with God's promise, believing for something as wild and outlandish as this: a child from a lifeless womb, a screaming mass of bone and flesh, but it came, it came, and like Abraham, we must learn to live our lives this way; waiting for the third day, holding on to hope, and the words that have been spoken, no matter how barren or broken things seem: the story isn't over yet, though it tarries, wait for it.

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#38darkness

I see God bowed and brooding, his arms falling around his dear earth, after cruel jeers condemned his son to death. Doubled up with grief, he came close to the jagged earth, his arms around, almost touching. And it reminds me of this year; of all the loneliness, the people in their boxes, staying safe by staying alone, perhaps God is bent and broken by our grief, by our struggles too, perhaps he comes close when the darkness is too dark to see by.

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#37mourning

Mary, bowed by grief, goes early to the tomb and finds it empty. Her tears spill as her mind races; 'Where have they taken my Lord?' But her tears have left her blind, for as she turns in the garden, she can't even make out the figure in front of her, alive and breathing, her 'Rabboni', the very one she is mourning.

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#36doubt

I've always loved Thomas, the way he acts like a petulant school boy. 'Show me then', he says, 'I won't believe unless I see it.' And then a week later, Jesus is there, and all of his undoing is there too; 'My Lord and My God', he says. Better to be true like he was; transformed to the core, than false, going with the flow, wearing your emotions like a mask.

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#35hidden

you were hidden in death, in grave clothes, waiting for the right time to take your first breath of rebirth. and now I am hidden in you, safe as houses, where moth and rust cannot break in and destroy, because all my treasure is in you and you are all my treasure.

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#34tomb

Sometimes, we too, bury our hope in darkness, shove it beneath the soil with a hollow heart, but even death itself was no match for my King; life-giver, death-defier. The truth of spring coming, though we saw only black mud, truth of the blazing heat of the sun, though we felt only the chill. Out of the darkest darkness, out of nothing, came first breath, green shoot; Life itself, reborn.

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#33cloths

Their very presence speaks to what is no longer there; the way that they fall, or are folded. There is the dance of life about them; the way they move themselves aside, lift themselves up, to let Life take its first breath.

'Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is no longer here' Luke 24:5

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#32veil

he made a way, his body a bridge, his death and awakening a doorway between this lowly land and the pathways of heaven. way-maker, future-forger, eye-opener, the veil was torn in two, the sea split apart, death was undone and the separation was finished, finally, once and for all. so we could come boldly, as children do, no fears about their past, no worries about their future, their popularity, their fame, they just come.

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#31cross

a single seed lay down in the soil, and from it sprang life, a tree, reaching to the heavens. a single tree, cut down, fashioned into planks and then a cross bearing the weight of the blameless King, a man, who was a tree of life himself, who walked the path into death and then out the other side, so that his death, his planting, would reap blessing for generation after generation; a tree of life, his branches spreading wide, his roots reaching deep for all who come. and every drop of life from him, another seed, and every breath of life from him, a seed bearer.

With a bit on inspiration pinched from The Three Trees story if anyone has read this or seen the play.

'Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.' John 12:24

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#30sorrows

there are the secret sorrows, that we carry with us; the unanswered prayers, the quiet longings that have never been spoken, but we are told our King is a man of sorrows and well acquainted with suffering. he knows it well, this life, the way it twists and turns, blesses and then breaks us under the weight of its pounding waves and knowing it well, he walks it with us, and in the end, he will take it from us, and lift the weight from our shoulders. all sorrow, all the tears, all the pain.

  Inspired by Isaiah 53 'Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.'

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#29sacrifice

these gifts we hold lightly, their warp and weft, their stretch and sway as they wend their way through our lives, threading them with just a touch of heaven's fire. we live through them, and through them make sense of this world. we see you, God, we even draw you, in green and grace, in white and gold, in ink and pencil, because we are trying, always, to make sense of this. here is the sacrifice: of time and devotion, instead of promotion and the sensible way. here instead, a different way of living: a fractured and colourful life, an imperfect offering on an outstretched palm. may this seed grow, shooting and green, vivid and life giving, until it reaches all the fullness it was made for.

This is a poem about the creative life and is inspired by this from Frederick Buechner: 'And deep in my heart I do believe that we will overcome some day... by God's grace, by helping the kingdom grow in ourselves and in each other until finally in all of us it becomes a tree where the birds of the air can come and make their nests in our branches. That is all that matters really.

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#28crown

And so we crown you

over and over,

in the small ways of our lives,

and in the quietness of our hearts.

But perhaps it matters more, then, 

because you are the only one who sees it, 

and you are the only one it's for.

But I can't put it any better than Frederick Buechner in this wonderful extract: Great Laughter — Frederick Buechner

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#27thorns

the thorny crown, a bead of blood spills, shame falls. he carries, then, all the weight of sin, and the mark of it on his body.

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#26Majesty

Because you said yes to the path that would cost you greatly but bring us all freedom, a new power was unleashed and a new kingdom began. One of servanthood and love; love that had power enough to undo and remake our whole world.

I went with the definition of majesty that meant authority. Then went with the idea of Jesus being the servant King who God exalted above everything else. 'He humbled himself and became vulnerable, choosing to be revealed as a man and was obedient.He was a perfect example, even in his death—a criminal’s death by crucifixion! Because of that obedience, God exalted him and multiplied his greatness! He has now been given the greatest of all names! The authority of the name of Jesus causes every knee to bow in reverence! Everything and everyone will one day submit to this name—in the heavenly realm, in the earthly realm, and in the demonic realm.'

Phillipians 2:8 TPT