A Faith For All Seasons
by R.E. Slater
In a distant time there lived a grizzled carpenter
known for his wisdom, love, and generosity,
In a distant time there lived a grizzled carpenter
known for his wisdom, love, and generosity,
where trade was plied in earnest craft
and living homilies bespoke the lives of men,
always in need their times and rhythms
though years sped by in their seasons,
where a humble workshop gripped its work
forging fire to iron for courage needed.
At the start this child-like craftsman
learned the cruelty of life’s wandering ways,
growing by trial and character in wisdom learned
offering love’s soft glows that glimmering shone,
lighting lean days ahead against hard times without
warming memories that melded faith to hope,
necessary for the steadiness needed to the
hard forges pressing down on flesh and blood.
As winters gave way to muddy springs, sowing to harvest,
At the start this child-like craftsman
learned the cruelty of life’s wandering ways,
growing by trial and character in wisdom learned
offering love’s soft glows that glimmering shone,
lighting lean days ahead against hard times without
warming memories that melded faith to hope,
necessary for the steadiness needed to the
hard forges pressing down on flesh and blood.
As winters gave way to muddy springs, sowing to harvest,
rests to toils, laughter to tears, fasts to feasts,
so the rhythms of life were met in steady homage
by faith’s many colors a’washed a rare vibrancy,
sharing a Savior’s faithful presence in generous hand
able to turn a timbreled piece to glowing moonshine,
harden a pliant willow to withstand long winters
or carve a plain stick released its glowing artistry.
Hardy cradles were made for newborn life,
boughs were bent and woven for cushioned rest,
tables for service, shelves for care, doors for entry,
or fences to protect, stables for safety, troughs for feed,
a cane to walk, a roof staying rains fair and hard,
cupboards to bear life’s fraught necessaries,
all imagined, needed, or wanted were given in their time,
completing men’s journeys from dawn to eveningtide.
Even so, the seasons of faith, its greens and golds, reds or
blacks, purples or rose, shading color to calendar,
to the wheels of labor or laughter, rest or harrow,
grinding steadily away against human frailty,
reminding nothing is lost when done in love
for love is the forge where all lives dance,
built of song or mirth rising to the altars of life
unlocking a soul’s faith weaving its cradles and turns.
R.E. Slater
February 27, 2017
*Based on the Liturgical Church Calendar
"Using the structure of the liturgical calendar and the life of Jesus as inspiration I wished to explore faith as a work and a practice in our lives as we struggle with morality and mortality. In our feeble faith we will struggle, yeah, too oftentimes fail, and yet must learn humility. To laugh with God over our vulnerabilities while striving to honor Him in all that we say or do when seeking to live for our Lord and Savior even as He lived for us during His earthly life and for His heavenly Father. We do this by living out a divine life of faith where the miraculous becomes ordinary even as the ordinary becomes sacred when imbued with the life of God who is faithful and our very hope for all our ‘morrows and for the world that lies ahead."
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