Friday Writings in WFM..........3/11/16

                          GOOD MORNING READERS

Some early morning food for thought...

Quietly trust yourself to Christ your Lord, and if anybody asks why you believe as you do, be ready to tell him, and do it in a gentle and respectful way.

1 Peter 3:15 TLB

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                       Tuesday's Devotional   

 The Womb of God

This is a continuation of the devotional that I posted this past Tuesday under the same title. You may remember that I spoke of God giving me a thought that a baby matures in its mother's womb developing all the physical needs to enable it to be born and live in the world. Likewise on earth we mature and hopefully receive all the spiritual needs that will enable us to be born into our real world in Paradise. I saw this as making our time on earth be like time spent in the "womb" of God, just as a baby develops in the womb of its mother. So I would like to share my poem with you today. You can apply the concepts to a place where you are always at peace and moved by what you see. Such places are gifts of God to us.

                                        Womb of God

Walking Trinidad Beach
in the crystal cool of the winter sun…
So quiet and peaceful, uplifting.
As I look at the masterpiece before me
As I tour you through this beach
In the womb of God.

For who can know the mind of God?
the how and why of things we see each day
and take for granted without even asking why.
How could a human mind conceive
the wonders I am appreciating here?
How could it all work together following imperatives
that no man could formulate or orchestrate
that the Genius of the universe devised
with intelligence infinite.

But today the cold, sparkling beauty of this beach
gives me cause and takes my breath away.
Could it be the unaccustomed chill of a winter’s day
not usually associated with a beach?
A place where I am usually found in summers warmth
not knowing winter warmth in cold exists,

Crashing waves…
A faint echo of the roar heard
When creating and fashioning the Universe.
Consider the splendor of God’s boutique in full array.
Watercolor paintings on this lovely vista…
blue, turquoise, white, charcoal, and dark olive
in this place moving, catching the light…
haze hanging low over a cool, unconcerned horizon
turning azure sky to powder blue out there
forming and enclosure to hold it on and to embrace me
in the womb of God. 

Gritty and gravelly
soaked by the receding frothy tide…
Where I spy footprints in these aged sands
recording short lived visits to this holy place
Shoe trails plain or boasting of their swirling treads.
One set of prints calling to mind the British flag
All carving their temporary paths.

Some, in spite of winter’s chill
Passing with bare feet testing salt and sand
with paw prints running side by side of feet
showing others who have come.
I spy two of “man’s best friends”
cavorting, jumping, barking in play
Braving the freezing waves to get a master’s stick…
All part of the ongoing creation
In the womb of God.

Resplendent rocks.
How did you arrive to delight me here?
Silent rough-hewn sentinels
from ancient slides of the land to the sea…
Or snatched by mighty, coursing waves
and dragged in to dot the shore.
Or perhaps in the ball game of creation
I wonder…Father, did you toss them here?
Assembling a myriad of colors and shapes…
Breathtaking and pleasing to the eye.

I notice a jagged rock striated with lines of jade
Which fade into a charcoal base
as if two separate boulders have bonded…
great and slight companions piled
one atop the other solidly conjoined.
I envision them as shapeless elephantine hulks
giving hint of ancient objects diminished
More petrified shapes…
a huge sarsen with smaller sidekicks 

that could be an ancient toad
frozen there before it could leap.

In the tide
arrive little sister stones and pebbles
swim relentlessly towards the beach.
Three rolls forward and two rolls back…
Pushed in…pulled out by the unending surf
One by one they slowly arrive on shore…
performers in this drama unfolding
in the Womb of God.

Aloof island
Detached, sedentary two hundred yards at sea…
do you think yourself superior to land bound cousins?
Rock root pounded by perpetual surf
Sentinel protecting your beloved beach…
High crest sporting a crew cut mane of evergreens
Reaching to heaven giving nest to gulls
Who fly and dip into the surf
Squawking and screeching joyfully into the wind…
Has human foot trod on your granite crag
Or just spied you while standing here in the sand?
Another puzzle piece of this coastal room
in the Womb of God.

And as I stop here looking out to sea
I tell myself that to me
The ocean is the most beautiful
Of God’s created splendor…
When other remembered sights
That come to contradict this like breakers pushing in…
My mind’s eye pictures places, folks, and times
Whose memories delight me as they pass…
Revealing stunning locations in Your splendid  creation.
People whose lives have affected mine
In so many ways shepherding me to progress
In the direction of whom I was destined to be. 

And so I stand on my personal, chosen bastion
Cold and hard beneath my feet…
Gazing on today’s particular view
Thankful for the gift it gives to me…
I cannot do much but sing a song of praise
For today calling this the most beautiful
Still knowing many sights are yet to be seen
As life goes along its daily trek
Just standing in awe and thankfulness
For all that comes from His unbounded love
Which promises fresh miracles to unfold
In the womb of God.

Watching all…
Drawing closer…
To my own nativity
from the Womb of God
into my eternal home.

©Corinne Mustafa

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Listening without interrupting.....Proverbs 18:2 

     Fools find no pleasure in understanding

but delight in airing their own opinions.

Speak without complaining.....James 1:19

      My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,

Pray without ceasing.....Colossians 1:9

        For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not   stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you                     with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and                       understanding that the Spirit gives,

Give without sparing.....Proverbs 21:26

         All day long he craves for more,

but the righteous give without sparing.

Answer without arguing.....Proverbs 17:1

       Better a dry crust with peace and quiet

    than a house full of feasting, with strife.

Share without pretending.....Ephesians 4:15

        Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.

Enjoy without complaint.....Philippians 2:14

         Do everything without grumbling or arguing,

Trust without wavering.....1 Corinthians 13:7

          It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Forgive without punishing.....Colossians 3:13

        Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Promise without forgiving.....Proverbs 13:12
      Hope deferred makes the heart sick,

    but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.  

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                                                               Have a good Friday 

                                       The weekend is about to begin!

                                         Here is an early reminder...

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Good wishes and God bless

from the
Writing Staff

of 

Women's Focus Ministries