Category Archives: Scripture
Only for an Hour
As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
Psalm 103:15-16, King James Version
blossoms tame or wild flower,
then they fade away.
Text and photo © 2012 by Magical Mystical Teacher
Photo: An iris in bloom, Hubbell Trading Post, Ganado, Arizona
More Poetic Bloomings: “Returning to the Soil”
More Straight Out of the Camera Sunday
More Sunday Scribblings: “Wild”
More Poetry Picnic, Week 34
More Shadow Shot Sunday 2
More Haiku Heights: “Hour”
More Mellow Yellow Monday
More Floral Friday Fotos
More Macro Monday
More Blue Monday
More I Heart Macro
In My Hour of Need
Psalm 61:1-2, King James Version
to you the Spirit leads me
in my hour of need.
Text and photo © 2012 by Magical Mystical Teacher
Photo: Northern Arizona
More Postcards from Paradise at Recuerda Mi Corazon
More Straight Out of the Camera Sunday
More Shadow Shot Sunday 2
More Haiku Heights: “Hour”
More Psalm Challenge #61
Nature Walk
As I shuffle through the arroyo, I keep dropping to my knees. An onlooker might mistake me for a pilgrim making my way to Lourdes. But the healing I seek cannot be found at some distant holy shrine. It is here in the dust at my feet: cedar twigs snapped off by storms; summer’s leftover flowers; small stones trying in vain to fatten themselves on wisps of winter sun.
I aim my camera at a clump of wasted wildflowers, remembering words from a letter written long ago: “God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are…” (1 Corinthians 1:28, RSV).
Low and despised is winter’s detritus in the arroyo, but it heals my battered spirit as I kneel in awe and wonder before it.
I search for underground streams—
three crows bear witness.
Text and photo © 2012 by Magical Mystical Teacher
Photo: Northern Arizona
More One Single Impression: “Underground”
More Sensational Haiku Wednesday: “Nature”
More We Write Poems: “Haibun Party Fun”
More Straight Out of the Camera Sunday
More Sunday Scribblings: “Search”
More Macro Flowers Saturday
More Shadow Shot Sunday 2
More Floral Friday Fotos
More Macro Monday
More I Heart Macro
Holy Breath
Job 37:10, King James Version
flinging snow across the land—
frigid, holy breath!
Text and photo © 2012 by Magical Mystical Teacher
Photo: Northern Arizona
More Sensational Haiku Wednesday with the theme “Craft” here
More Straight Out of the Camera photos here
More Mellow Yellow Monday photos here
More Watery Wednesday photos here
Fading Flowers
Isaiah 40:8, King James Version
and flowers fade into dust,
still the Word endures.
Text and photo © 2011 by Magical Mystical Teacher
Photo: Northern Arizona
More Straight Out of the Camera photos here
More Poetry Picnic Week 23 poems here
More Macro Monday photos here
More I Heart Macro photos here
More Floral Friday Fotos here
Crooked Paths
Can crooked paths be made straight?
The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, makes his paths straight.
Mark 1:3, King James Version
For more Six-Word Saturday participants, click here
What Would Have Happened if There Had Been…
…room for them in the inn?
What the Angels Sang
Glory to God in the highest!
Advent: Day 17
O that deliverance for Israel would come from Zion! When God restores the fortunes of his people, Jacob will rejoice and Israel be glad.
Psalm 53:6, Revised Standard Version
when You restore our fortunes
as the desert blooms.
Text and photo © 2011 by Magical Mystical Teacher
Photo: Ocotillo blossoms, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Southern California
More Straight Out of the Camera shots here
More SkyWatch Friday photos here
More Ruby Tuesday photos here
More REDnesday photos here
More Himmelsk photos here
Advent: Day 12
Isaiah 41:18, Revised Standard Version
We are short-staffed at our middle school this year, and often teachers are assigned temporary extra duty—without extra pay, of course.
Several weeks ago, I was assigned to morning duty in the cafeteria, along with the other special education teacher. Presumably, we special ed teachers don’t have anything important to do in the morning before school starts, so we are at the mercy of the need of the moment. (We’ve also been pressed into service as substitute teachers.)
A middle school cafeteria first thing in the morning is a wilderness. Many of the students are half-awake, and they willfully (or sleepily) break the rules. Not a morning goes by but what I don’t have to say to students, “Take off your hood, please,” or “No, you may not go to the bathroom without a pass,” or “The next time I see your cell phone, I’ll have to confiscate it.”
After several week of standing guard in the wilderness, and fuming about it, I reluctantly resigned myself to my fate: I am going to be stuck with morning cafeteria duty for the rest of the year, so I might as well make the best of it.
This morning, out of sheer boredom, I started humming “O Little Town of Bethlehem” softly to myself. To my delight, I realized that no one could hear me above the din raised by several hundred chattering students. (Yes, despite their sleepiness, they can still talk.)
As I continued humming the familiar Christmas carol, while thinking of the words, the wilderness of the cafeteria suddenly became a place of beauty and grace. The “dry land” of the breakfast room became “springs of water,” nourishing my soul.
The church calendar contains as many as 34 weeks of so-called Ordinary Time, a season with no major celebrations.
Advent, however, is far from ordinary. It is a season of expectation, providing opportunities for me to see God change the most barren wilderness in my life into a flourishing field fed by springs of living water.
