Creation
Wafer
Click for meditationRegarding "Wafer"
In the Old Testament,
In the Book of Genesis, is found
The Creation story. Yes, it is a
Simple story, but it speaks
As a tome of eternal Truth – that in
Some mysterious way, the
Earth came into being and was
Populated with humans (“creatures”) and
Plants and animals and birds
And fishes and all else living…
All things in Creation were
Described as complementing each
Oth’r. A simple story, but oh so
Complicated! Then fast forward to the
New Testament in which Jesus
Is revealed as the Son of
God, the Son of the very Creator in
The Old Testament Who saw
All He had made after six days and
Declared it to be “very good!”
And in the New Testament, it was
Jesus Who restored the beauty
Of Creation’s original goodness and work!
In Revelation 21:5, Jesus exclaimed,
“Behold, I make all things new!”
And in a way this was re-
Affirmed to me recently, when
I saw a yellow maple leaf
Lying up’n a geranium like a
Wafer up’n a tongue in Holy Communion,
The brotherhood of the New
Covenant in consonance with the
Supporting structure of the
Prophets and the Law of Moses
Of the Old Covenant.
Leo Carroll
December 1, 2021
A single, yellow
Maple leaf, lying lightly like a
Communion wafer on
The sheen of a geranium
Green and meek,
Resting as if waiting
Up’n the tongue of the
Plant to receive it,
But the geranium was
Paused, wanting to savor
What was bought in
Gethsemane, in the dark of
That Garden at such
Great cost…
Revelation 21:5
"Behold, I Make All Things New"
And so blew a breath
Across the waters, and the surf
Came in, and the sand
Grains believed…
And then nothing more
Was heard, because
With that one verse all was
Made clean…
Gifts
Suffering is the yeast
Which brings us to grow spiritually…
And God is the eternal
“I AM WHO I AM,”
During the e’er changing
Nature and faces of
Our pilgrim’s journeying…
Rockweed Love
Click for meditationRegarding "Rockweed Love"
We were in Maine
Again this past summer, and
As customary, one of
Our daughters with her
Young family was with us.
We were at the beach
Almost every day, and
Our two granddaughters
Frolicked in the cold
Waters with no ill effects.
On the next to last day
There, as we were
Getting ready to leave
The beach and were washing
The sand off our feet,
A little voice standing
Beside me spoke
With the innocence and
Prescient wisdom of a
Child. It was one of my
Granddaughters, age
Eight. And out she was
Holding her palm,
Wanting to show what
She had miraculously found –
A piece of rockweed
Seaweed, a free-floating
Type of algae, its appendage
Drawn into the shape
Of a perfect heart!
It symbolized so much –
Her love for me, mine for her,
The Love of the Creator
For us all, and the love which
Flows from each of us
As the Second Commandment
Shouts out from the
Shores of Down-East Maine
And then echoes back
Out into Penobscot Bay…!
Leo Carroll
October 14, 2021
“Papa, look! A heart!” and
My granddaughter
Extends her wrinkled
And waterlogged palm to
Show me the mercy
And message come fresh
From the cold sea,
Her hand innocent, her
Face in awe and
Wonder, sensing that
Her Papa would see what she
Herself believes…
Chipmunk
Click for meditationRegarding "Chipmunk"
And so I saw a summer
Chipmunk – standing on its hind legs
Like it was part of the Lewis
And Clark Expedition and
Staring in awe at what is now
Called Yellowstone Park!
It stood as tall as it absolutely
Could, ramrod straight,
And was perfectly still lest it
Disturb a single blade
Of grass on the infinite plain
Before it…So engrossed
It seemed in ‘something,’
Fascinated, mesmerized, that
It dared almost not to
Breathe…and then
It relented, its chest relaxing,
And it moved serenely
Into my flower bed –
A mere ten feet away –
Its answer to the meaning of
Existence contained in
What a lemon-yellow daylily
On its face had to say.
Leo Carroll
September 25, 2021
Up’n its hind legs,
Stretching its tendons to almost
Breaking while peering o’er
The summer grass, a
Chipmunk surveils the vast,
Unlimited prairie
Before its gaze, perhaps
Looking for love or food or
Danger or something
I can imagine not,
But all it sees is a
Thursday morning –
Dawned like all others –
Except that for a
Few seconds I captured
Its contemplation
Of the universe’s infinite
Landscape…until it
Settled on my garden a
Mere ten feet away, and knew
It was seeing whate’er
It would e’er need
To see…or e’er hope for
In answered prayer.