March 31, 2000 - Baby Angel Version
Welcome to this edition of the poetry ring. I'm still on the road. I'm coming to understand more fully what tour must be like for Christian artists, only I don't get the adrenaline rush from going on stage (bummer!). However, I have had time to do some reading and some writing while out and about (so long as someone else is driving). A few of the things I have been reading lately that may be of interest:
"A Different Picture" (about mental health) by Martha Henegar, Interpreter, April 2000, www.umc.org/Interpreter (borrowed it from Grandma)
CCM Magazine April 2000 - checked out everything related to the Jesus TV Miniseries! It sounds awesome. www.ccmagazine.com
DOWN A GARDEN PATH and LOVE IN EVERY ROOM by Karla Dornacher, J Countryman
AND GOD WAS THERE by Chaplain Eben. Cobb Brink, The Westminster Press, Philadelphia (stories from the battlefields of WWII)
"To Know Kevin, Michael, and Toby" CCMusic dc Talk discussion zone, www.ccmusic.org/discussion.cgi?forum-11&disc-189 (a discussion about seeing the band members as real people - I printed it out so that I could read it later - and, yes, I do get the irony of printing it out)
I had an interesting discussion with my sister the other day. We were talking about how God moves in our lives sometimes by using people around us like angels. Just when you need a few good words, a good deed, or just a bright smile, God will interject a person into your life that fills that need. In my life, often is the case that when I am feeling down, someone close to me will give me a call out of the blue. Sometimes it's one of my sisters or my mom or a close friend. They say the same things, "I just felt like I needed to call you." or "I've been thinking about you today." Sometimes it's a note in the mailbox or an e-mail. One person reaching out to another by the hand of God. But then when that needed thing comes for a stranger out of the blue, well then I wonder if it is really a heavenly angel in earthly disguise. It's been done before, you know.
UNKNOWN ANGEL
- Leslie Johnson copyright 1996
Hello, unknown angel
Are you smiling at me?
Are you watching me from the sky
down through the newly greening trees?
Do I keep you way to busy
with all my passing concerns?
Do you ever wish I'd grow up,
get a clue, from my mistakes learn?
Or do you smile like a mother
watch her baby take her first steps?
And when tumbling over
offer encouragements instead of regrets?
I know that you're out there.
I can't see you but I just know
that you're here to protect and encourage me
and that you'll never go.
Driving long distances in the car, I get some strange thoughts running through my head. I was thinking how I see us as baby angels here on earth. What I mean is that we get through life on earth and are born into a heavenly form to live with our Heavenly Father. As for me, I'm hoping for blue wings to match my eyes. : ) Okay maybe I've been in the car too long...........
GREEDY BABY ANGELS
- Leslie Johnson copyright 2000
We try so hard
to do what we will
to know the pleasure
of the moment
an endless sky of thrills
forget about God
and all those rules
we claim confinement
by boundaries
We act as fools
In Truth unknown
We're just greedy baby angels
with shimmers of God
in between our wings
hungry to be heard and seen
greedy baby angels
Please Lord let the light
come clean
We try so hard
to write what the Lord
hath said
in a new and groovy way
to communicate
our experience with God
to amaze
in awe unbelievers
brought to the Galilean Sea
Truth be known
We're just greedy baby angels
with shimmers of God
in between our wings
hungry to be heard and seen
greedy baby angels
Please Lord let the Light
come clean
We try so hard
to walk the lines
to surrender ourselves
to become unblind
Praying for release
shake off this
earthly robe
to know the presence
of God
and be absorbed in
HIS love
HE is the Truth
We're just greedy baby angels
with shimmers of God
in between our wings
hungry to be heard and seen
greedy baby angels
Please Lord let the Light
come clean
I know this edition is a little short. Hopefully it will still be meaningful to someone. I have to hit the road again! If we find the right place, we can be settled in our new location in about a month and a half's time. It's a nice small town with a lot of history and character- more about that another time. Perhaps by the next time I send out a ring I'll be finished with the short story I've started working on. It was inspired by one of the poem's at K-Max's site. It's a dark piece on love and redemption. How dark? This is the opening line: "The blood flowed down faster than she thought it would." Enough teasing for now. As always, feel free to send feedback to me at Shaken@angelfire.com.
God be with you and keep you. Peace, love, and forgiveness.
Leslie Elain
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Email: shaken@angelfire.com