Comes the Day

Comes the Day The Righting of Things copyright Doug Blair, Waterloo ON, 2019

Comeuppance

Release is great As recompense arrives And God reverses wickedness Refreshing weary lives The sad old rants subside

Does God see much of this Does He still bother to correct The righteous feel His kiss?

But then the winds of change A day of fire and rage The godless feel the axe’s edge And suffer robbery’s wage And faithful ones will sigh As healing comes at last Like little yearlings Through the gate With joy then unsurpassed.

(Malachi 4)

Ezekiel Thirty-Four

I have watched And kept a score

With shepherds of the flock Was comfort there And selfless care Or was there just mere talk?

For lambs would fight And lambs would hurt And many hide in shame But wounds to tend And young to feed By those who bear my name.

It takes my love Not sweat of men To move the flock t’ward rest And oftentimes I kept the job Withheld from second best.

The runaways Would hear my song And yearn for my embrace The wolf would flee

Yes run from me And forests felt safe place.

I seek out those Who get my heart Forgiving wayward sheep And keep things right Just as I spoke With patience kind and deep.

As She Sleeps

The half of her Is now so dark And weary souls seek rest All business done The stars have come So may her dreams be blessed.

I keep the watch As comets sweep

And oceans deep roll on The pulse is mine And right on time Refreshed she faces dawn.

The other half Has worked quite hard Producing things of worth Some new skills learned Some respite earned Good folks around the earth.

And at the change The joyful burst Of sunshine gleaming bright.

I love it all The big the small And day turned into night.

(Psalm 65)

Clean Up

I want to end all hatred And special privilege too The hungry little children Deserve to see life through The lonely and afflicted Must have a hero’s aid And drinking water wholesome From streams that I have made.

I want to see new brothers Where tribal hatred roared And spears beat into plowshares For food all can afford And harvest’s happy music With young and old in dance With kindness for the failing And healthy true romance.

But mortals cringe and covet And fear the things of loss So I must forge a new hope And I must take my Cross.

Of Several Gardens

It was late winter of 1982 and I was on the train with a client going to Toronto. We had chosen the rails in order to have some more time for me to get familiar with her case.

All went pretty well as expected in the official proceedings, but it was the trip home that changed my life. Geri was a dedicated Christian. Diminutive in size. Blonde. But with big captivating eyes and an unvarnished sincerity.

She took the plunge and started to talk with her newfound lawyer about Salvation offered through the Blood of Calvary.

At the time I was a People’s Warden at an Anglican church, with no familiarity with a Bible, but with lots of time for seasons and sayings.

Salvation was just an archaic term. The Holy Spirit unknown.

But Geri was obedient to that urging within her. She started to talk about original sin and the seed of depravity within every mortal. The solution was a blood cleansing freely offered.

The conversation aligned itself along the topic of gardens:

1) In the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve had chosen to resort to their own will and to disobey God’s only command about the forbidden fruit. Sin, death and suffering entered the human race as the consequence of law breaking. Satan had set it all in place...or so it seemed.

2) In the Garden of Gethsemane on the eve of His betrayal, Jesus won the battle of wills, resisting the onslaught of Satan, and consecrating Himself to arrest and to the bloody Cross by which we were saved.

3) In a beautiful garden setting in the Heavenly City of the New Jerusalem, the family of faith will come to know peace and joy incomparable and without end. And all because of Jesus’ finished work.

Three gardens. Failure. Recovery. Reward. This is the Plan of Salvation devised by the Lord before the foundation of the world. I could see, as if in a flash, the unity, balance and consistency of scripture – Genesis to Revelation.

The accord and the mission of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

I was reminded of this personal milestone recently in reading a wonderful sermon by Charles Spurgeon entitled Christ, the Conqueror of Satan.

Sermon #1326 http://www.spurgeongems.org/vols22-24/vols22-24.htm I wonder what might have been if I had heard Spurgeon’s message years before 1982? Not for me to ask. Not for me to know. Our God is always the Master of timing. But here now is the message for others...the main event.