THE OUTSKIRTS OF HIS GLORY EXTRACT

'The Outskirts of His Glory' Extracts & Readings ...

'When did you last listen to the grass grow?! Or pay attention to the song being sung by that bird who always visits the back garden in the afternoon? Oftentimes we become so waylaid by our own busyness and preoccupations we fail to even notice these things, much less stop and pay attention to them.

I sometimes suspect that the Lord has a greater sense of humour than we think, and that heaven is a place of laughter as much as it is of worship and adoration. Not the little titters of polite appreciation but rambunctious roars and gleeful guffaws, burbling belly laughs of pure, untarnished joy. Revelation says there will be no more sorrowing or sighing, no more tears or sadness – what else will be in their stead but smiles and delight?'

Joy

When last did I tarry

in this way of waiting

letting waves speak wonders

and sun leave smiles?

To sit with no purpose

no plan

no plaything

Merely to capture a world as it passes.

A twist of a tail

And the wings of a kite –

tethered not by string or line –

Catch the thermal draft of upward air.

Then low, now high

in the sky.

Effortless entertainment

Delicious descent

Joy in the call to accompany.

Could it be that all of this

is shown so I might see

this life with all its fulness

is your gracious

death-bought -

gift

for me?

And that I should live it

Full

and

Free.

Full

of laughter

Free

to play and pray and worship

to feel the ups and downs

the highs, the lows

the mountaintops and valleys

Knowing that in you

just you

I am (w)holy complete.

Full.

Perspective

As I Pass

I have walked

wandered

stumbled

past you

so many times

Blind, I think, to even your presence.

Unaware, certainly, of your beauty.

I have fixed my attention on a point before me

The destination the end

not the process.

The place the path is going

hurriedly more important

than the steps I tread today.

I have blended you with your neighbour

Labelled you both the same

Failed to see where the one has end

or where the other starts.

I’ve gazed across a landscape

Blurred the intricacy of individuality

Seen just one colour, one hue

instead of seeing you.

And even as I’ve hummed along

whistling while I walk

I’ve drowned the lilt and melody

of all the songs you’ve sung.

Deafened by my thoughts of me

I’ve missed the call of you.

You, whose voice my Lover loves

more unique than every snowflake

Bought with all of heaven’s Treasure

more priceless than a pearl.

The masterpiece in the artist’s collection

Which demands I stop

notice

remark

Cry, ‘Look, come over here

to see what I have seen’.

To raise a flag of recognition

a banner unfurled

a royal standard lifted

That other travellers and tourists

pilgrims and passers-by

May not

like me

fail to recognise the significance of you.

There's a chapter in 'Outskirts' dedicated to the need to sometimes see the mountains in our lives from a different perspective. This is a reading of the poem associated with that chapter.