I never knew you

GRANDFATHER PERALTA

I never knew you, Grandpa.
Your life ended long before
my mother met my father,
yet because of Mom’s
memories of life with you,
you are as real as anyone
I have ever known.
I see you herding sheep
in the high Arizona mountains,
bringing them into the fold.
I see you laughing with your children.
I see you running for sheriff
and serving faithfully after
you were elected.
I see you worn out,
not with age, but with work,
struggling to feed your family
of fourteen children from two dead wives
killed by time and childbirth,
cancer
and hard labor.
Your legacy is alive though Mom is gone
and so is the man she married,
he who was like you,
hard working,
hard living,
hard loving,
and now
gone.

 

____________________________

Comments welcomed. Poetry submission welcome. Send submissions to sharon@fsvandermeer.com

Look to the Light

Light of the World

Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2 (NIV)

In “The Screwtape Letters,” C.S. Lewis writes, “It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one-–the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

Mother Theresa wrote, “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”

The message from both these inspirational writers is about faith. Remaining faithful; being courageous in faith; willing to step outside your comfort zone in faith; faithfully resisting that which takes you away from the Light; and standing on faith when the world is falling apart around you.

Lewis returned to his Christian imperative in his thirties. With his new-found faith he wrote compelling narratives calling attention to how the world can shape who we are when we lose faith, not necessarily all at once, but rather by dribs and drabs, an undone thing here, an unkind or thoughtless word there.

Mother Theresa dedicated her entire life to serving the helpless and the hopeless, stepping out in faith, not that all would be well, but that she had a job to do and that job was right in front of her to be done now. Not later, not tomorrow, not when she had time, but now, in this moment. Today.