i love a good poem. i am the ONLY person i know that loves poetry so much that i have laminated some of my favorite poems and have them hanging in the shower so i can read them while a shower. i am that crazy about poetry that i want to read beautiful poetry out loud to myself in the shower.
and that is why this is one of my favorite verses in the Bible...
ephesians 2:10
For we are God's workmanship (poiema),
created in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for us to do.
we are God’s poems. He wrote us in His indelible ink to do good works, to do things that benefit others. to be read out loud. there are days that i don’t feel like a poem. no one wants to read me out loud. but God does. God calls me his “poiema” on my good days and my bad days. He just keeps writing. keeps the stanzas coming. the meter and the cadence are all His workmanship. evidence of a Holy pen...
and all this makes me so grateful for the past weekend (well, wednesday through monday to be exact). because i was able to be with these three friends. these poems that live out loud (some a bit louder than others). and we were in a beautiful place. st. teresa beach has never looked better than in this first fall feeling weekend.
these three friends were written into the verses of my life by a God who knew how much i would need them. how they would liven up the verses. make them dance and sing and rhyme in really weird ways. how they would fill the lines with mere glimpses of the awesomeness of God... through them He shows me light in darkness, beauty from ashes, hope that never disappoints, purpose in perseverance, grace greater than sin, glory in jars of clay, love that does not fail, freedom from slavery, that there is mercy still reserved for me...
but most of all a JOY. they show me with JOY. they shower me with JOY. JOY oozes from their very pores. along with caffeine. and sometimes sweat. but mostly JOY...
their lives are not perfect. heck, they are not perfect. best of all, they forgive me for my less than perfect moments (they even seem to expect them). and they laugh at themselves and make me laugh at myself.
they are not perfect (let’s state that again for the record...) but they are peculiar...
1 peter 2:9
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation,
a people belonging to God,
that you may declare the praises of Him
who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
in the king jimmy version... “a people belonging to God” is stated this way...
“a peculiar people”
no words have ever described three women more aptly...
it means literally “continually the possession of God” as well as “continually toward or for God”
apt indeed... for they are His possessions and they know it. and they are all continually growing in grace and knowledge of Him. they press in to Him. they seek His face. they know Him by Name. they love Him dearly. and they are His. and He is theirs.
and i get to watch them live out their poetic lives...
oh, the manifold wisdom of God...
1) much variegated, marked with a great variety of colours
1a of cloth or a painting
1b much varied, manifold
His wisdom in putting together four friends who are so very different. different upbringings, different temperaments, different gifts and talents, and sometimes just plain DIFFERENT... and making a much variegated piece of artwork with us.
almost like a scrapbook page with different by complimentary papers (and we know ALL about that after scrapbooking for 5 days in a row).
they are my favorite poem.