Contemplating nails on a cross, on an Easter Friday

Faulty connections, angry hearts
Going back repeatedly all the way to the start
Trying again to do things right
Living in the shadows and hiding from light

Jesus, I've heard of the change you can bring
Today I heard the church bells ring
But when I look will I find you still
At the top of a mountain or the foot of a hill?

My heart is hurting and my tears all fall
And then your hand reaches and I hear your call
I run and stumble to the foot of your cross
Broken yet loved, you remove my dross

And as I cling to your promise today
You take my debt, and you have paid
I stand forgiven, in the light, loved and free
Because you have taken my guilt from me

It is finished - was your cry
You opened your arms and then you died
Creation was redeemed with your last breath
And I am reborn into life from death

Bruised & broken... loved & healed

Bruised, you hold me
Broken, you lift me
In my time of flickering faith
How I am loved, how I am loved

In your faithfulness, you bring justice
To the wrongs in my life
And I breathe hope, again
Jesus, you love me
O how you heal me.

For Alison

Alison, a saint? No, not quite,
But a woman in whom to delight
Strong and loud to lead her bright clan
True and straight in her Lord's plan

Beside every husband there stands a strong wife
The bringer of life or harbinger of strife
But Al has weathered so many storms
Keeping faith high and her love warm

Peter the strong, and Peter the brave
Peter who could o'ercome any enclave
Pete, your legacy stands in the children who are here
In the wife who with strength smiles in her tears

For God has brought this time to an end
And it's God who gives, and it is God who will send
Seed that is sown to the ends of the earth
Bringing new life, ushering in the new birth.

<For Alison George: on the start of a new season of life. Peter is gone. God has won. >

Rainbows

I never dreamed that rainbows would come

That I would be the lucky one

That when my beautiful boy turned three

The rain would start… and fall on me.

I have three children who all are kind

Gentle, fun and with great minds

My girl is sweet and loving and true

My youngest tears around and lives true blue

But Trystn, our eldest, just sits and smiles

For him we’ve all gone the extra mile

Sometimes I wonder why the rainbows came

To bless our life again and again

There are rainbows in my tears, I’ve found

When curled up and sobbing on the ground

And rainbows in my happiest days

When flowers dance and children play

For rainbows promise God is near

Despite the joys, and in the fear

And I love the colours in the rain

For rainbows follow, again and again

While today there is sunshine in my boy’s eyes

And cuddles, loves, grunts and smiles

Who knows what tomorrow may bring?

In the rain, under rainbows, I’ll praise and sing.. 

(For my friend Cath, and Trystn, the boy who brought rainbows to his family)