My Psaltery: in His hand

 61.          “The Needle”                                                                    by Crystal Alexander, 27 July 2020

 

Will it hold?

Will it really hold?

Needle in, needle out

Up one side, down another

Lock stitch, running stitch, whip stitch

Broke one needle

Found a stronger

In, out, over, under, through

Little knowing the strain to come

Little knowing the threat to be undone

Little knowing who would pull the seams the Lord set before me

It will hold, God chose the thread

It will hold, to these fabrics I was led

It will hold, I then discover

I’m not the seamstress

It’s Another

Threaded I go

In, out, over, under, through

Deftly plied by fingers wise

I journey through tissues

Cut, met and folded

Of natural fibers, hand-spun and made to be joined

The Tailor pulls the thread that trails behind me

The garment takes shape

I rest in His fingers panting

And open my eyes

He smiles

My Psaltery: ablaze & contemplative

 

41.

Baptize with fire, God

Blaze like no other

Send Holy Cyclone

And rattle our shutters

 

Burn with Your cleansing

Purifying Light

Baptize Your people

With Holy Ghost might

 

Take hold our tongues

Those wicked wee flames

We ask for forgiveness

And sanctified reign

 

Rebellious and fractured

We scattered at Babel

Pentecost’s blaze

Redeemed the rabble

 

Languages foreign

You put on our tongues

Holy Ghost unction

Pentecost sprung

 

No teacher has taught us

These words of new praise

Proclaiming Your glory

Wind-swept and ablaze

 

Come Holy Spirit

Ignite us again

Gather the kindling

Breathe on the flame

 

Build up Your bonfire

Stack up the timber

Pour out Your Spirit

Revive the low embers

 

The hearth of our hearts

We’ve left unattended

Busy and bustling

The world we befriended

 

It’s time to return

To God’s Fireplace

To terry and pray

For the Pentecost grace

 

8 June 2020 -- cja

___________________

 

44.

You’re nothing but a pack of cards

Just potsherds striving together

You raise your fists and stack your bricks

Revolting hell for leather

 

In your plans and calculations

Cir’cling like the bulls of Bashan

Where was God in your equations

Or was it just your passions

 

Nonplussed and unsurprised is God

Not stopped nor manipulated

Jesus is still LORD and King

Of all that He created

 

God’s Holy Spirit brooded o’er

Creation’s waters deep

He still can see where e’er men be

And knows the thoughts they keep

 

The author’s pen is in God’s hand

You cannot wrest it from Him

I will not fear curses of man

My hope does not come from them

 

15 July 2020 -- cja

___________________

 

48.

Leather shoes with tongues aflopping

Soles worn thin and feeble

The tips are torn, the heels all scuffed

Stitching is slack and yawning

 

It’s miles I’ve tread, and meters too

Dirt and boards and pavement

When not ascending then it’s stretching

The finish far from view

 

Oh cobbler come and ply your trade

New soles for old exchange

Retool, rethread, and reanoint

Relace with silken braid

 

‘Neath a tree I wait and rest me

Eyes half-closed, I watch him work

If perfection slows his labors

I could not more agree

 

29 June 2020 -- cja

___________________

 

54.

 When all is chaos

And unwinds

Stunned

Bring out your box

Of buttons

Mixte

Useful, useless

Grave or sprite

Shaped

Glad-eyed behold

One by one

Pray

God knows the details

All’s in hand

Kept

You’re not forgotten

 

12 July 2020 -- cja

My Psaltery: the sea of me

 Some poems from my own personal collection of writings, which I call My Psaltery. 

19. 

 Lord You are faithful

Your love is evergreen

Mightier than the mountains

Whose toes dip in the sea

The valleys of the Deep beneath

Hold volumes of Your glory

The ocean paths are blazed therein

By Your feet alone

You hover over all

The waters of my soul

You brood lovingly

O’er the deeps of me

No frightful creature there

In my seabed valleys

Is unknown or greater than Thee

My Hero

My Captain

The Sailor of my seas

 

 

 

16.

 A cup of tea, a tall ship

Propelled I wander o’er the sea

A dream far off, a bound’ry

Black is the night ‘twixt you and me

A song of hope, a candle

My dog and I alone we pray

A Savior strong, a Helper

Your course is true, dear heart, be brave

An unfelt hand, assurance

I find the strength to hoist my sail

A cup of tea, a tall ship

And I sail on with You

 

 

Crystal Jean Alexander

May 2020

 

For God & Glasgow

   We will never be the same again.  

With all my heart for God & Glasgow.  - Crystal & wee Cherie

 

“Are You Ready?”

How can this little, darling dog realize that she and her “Kansas prairie” mistress are FLYING TO SCOTLAND ON NOVEMBER 17TH?  Yup, that’s right folks!!  The visa came on Wednesday the 5th and then the next day wham!! through a series and emails, phone calls, and extra double-checkings on my part, the plane ticket to Scotland was booked and paid for.  I’m still a little dizzy, I must say.  Straight-up and right-away I must say THANK YOU JESUS, GOD ALMIGHTY!!!  He has done miracle after miracle to get me where I am and where I’m going.  I love my Lord and Savior with all my heart not only for what He’s done, but for who He is!  I agree with David in his 34th psalm, “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.”  Amen, I’m waving my little flowered hankie wildly in agreement!  (It’s a Southern thing…)  Also, thank you so much, my friends,

for being a part of this amazing journey that came from God’s heart.  Over and over God has been showing me that His love and mercy is to be experienced and sent around the world together.  Your prayers, thoughtfulness, monetary giving and plain ol’ encouraging words and hugs have made a HUGE difference for me.  I expect this togetherness in Christ to have eternal-hope impact far beyond Scotland.  May I say with every fiber of my being: JESUS CHRIST LOVES YOU!  You, as in you sitting right here reading this.  You are not part of a vague collective of human beings randomly birthed on a accidental, spinning planet.  You are the Lord Creator’s design.  Taste and see that the LORD is good!  It’s way different than being religious or a church-goer.  You are passionately loved and longed for by the Lord and Master of the Universe.  Open your mouth like a little birdie (Mom always said that) and taste.  Nuff said.  (I think I’m waiving the little flowered hankie again.)  

She's Home

Mom made it Home.  Our Heavenly Father who loves us all so much took Esther Belle Alexander home to be with Him on April 3, 2014 at 5:43 in the evening.  My dad (Jim Alexander) and brother (Frank Alexander) and I were with her when she left.  It was God’s mercy and grace.  I miss her.

When I see particular bunches of flowers growing in the yard, or when I cook up some new recipe I think she‘d like to taste, or when I just dial her phone number to hear her voicemail … it all twinges and pulls at my heart, but I’d never drag her back here.  She’s Home:  happy, young, strong, free and in the loving arms of Jesus.  Thank you everyone for praying for my family.  It has made a difference and continues to.  My mama was a nature girl and a creative dreamer, and she still is.  Death for a true believer in Jesus Christ is not an end.  It’s just a new beginning.  “Happily ever after” does not have to be a fairytale:  it’s simply when a child of God goes Home.

It’s His-Story

In the 5th century the Romans, who occupied most of Britannia, finally pulled up stakes and went home.  They had troubles enough of their own to worry about back in the Mediterranean.  Too many flies and not enough soup were on the Roman dinner table in those days, especially with that obnoxious Attila the Hun hovering around for a waiter! (1)  So, the native peoples left behind in Britannia were given a hearty “good luck”, and that was that.  The Britons and Angles in the south had done the most mixing with the Romans, but the Picts and Gaels in the north and west were mighty pleased to be rid of those Roman-pests.  There were no Scots or Scotland up there in the north country back then.  It was just an assorted motley crew that roamed and ruled the northern third of Britannia.  Red-headed, short-tempered Picts (so named by the Romans for apparent tattooing) were known for head hunting, but at the same time carved beautiful images on tall stones to communicate and commemorate their lives instead of having a written language.  Then there were  those feisty Gaels that had come over from the large, neighboring island to the west (now called Ireland) who had their own completely different culture and language, a written language.  But, their heads weren’t that much cooler than Picts, so many a war was fought amongst them.  Then, with the Britons and Angles raising Cain on their southern side, it was a rare thing indeed to just sit on your back stoop sipping tea and swatting flies on a quiet summer evening.  Nonetheless, God does the craziest, coolest things.  He began to bring His Message of His Son, Jesus Christ, through the Gaels.  Sure they didn’t communicate it perfectly all the time, but the message of Christianity started spreading.  Columba came from Ireland in the 6th century, among other missionaries, and helped to spread the Word of God.  Of course God’s Message met with great resistance.  In fact there was actually a face-to-face, spiritual show-down between the missionary Columba and the druid of a Pictish king!  The druid lost, but Christianity was still slow to spread into the lives of the Picts and their Pictland, or, as it was sometimes called, Caledonia.  Albeit loosely, there was some level of amalgamation between the Picts and Gaels during the next few centuries, especially with the Angles harassing them from the south.  The enemy of my enemy is my friend, don’t-ya-know!  Then the 9th century brought devastation to everyone: Vikings!  They came in their swift and silent Viking ships (knarrs) from the north (Scandinavia) and devoured lands and people not only in the British Isles, but also in what is now Europe, Russia, Turkey, Africa and Canada.  Isn’t it interesting that God’s message of love and hope was sent ahead of the storm to provide a source of strength and peace for what was to come?  At the end of this century (with many a twist and turn by birth, death, betrayal and the almighty hand of God) the Gaels and the Picts merge for real into one kingdom.  In 889 A.D. we have the first written notation of this united kingdom of Alba, which is Gaelic for Scotland.  Eventually the Pictish language disappears.  Gaelic becomes the language of power and then the language of the common people.  All this to say, God’s sovereignty amazes me.  We think we are the ones in control of our lives, that our free-will rules the day.  But, I’m reminded of a proverb in the Bible:  “The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; He directs it like a watercourse wherever He pleases.” (Proverbs 21:1)  Is your family a loose confederation of combatants?  Have “Vikings” raided your work-place and are terrorizing your future?  Is your old, familiar way of living life disappearing into the “Highland mists” never to come back?  Listen, the Lord God Creator loves you, and He is sending this message to you:   

Let Me heal your brokenness.  Come, follow Me.  I love you.