Valentines

Valentine's Day is coming in a couple of weeks. Many people will express their emotions by sending a valentine to the one they are attracted to. This emotional attraction is a beautiful thing in marriage, but when it is not backed by sacrifice, it is not worthy of the name of love. Don't call it love until you are ready to make a commitment of service for forever.

Valentines

Is that mere piece of crimson paper
Supposed to really represent
The heart supplying life within?
That shape engulfed in lace you sent
Is somehow meant to show your love?
What is it that you really meant?

When next year comes, you’ll probably
Have sent one to a different guy;
And when the paper’s ripped in two
A pail can hold the tears you cry—
But don’t you know that if you tore
Your heart in two then you would die?

This paper somehow states your feelings,
To let him know how much you care;
You say you’ve given him your heart,
But what’s this sympathy compared
To every beat of servanthood,
Each moment which your heart has shared?

Don’t call your sweet emotions love
Until you’ve come at last to find
The lifelong service of a heart:
When every beat with life has shined
And love’s defined by what you give
Then you can share a valentine.

(c) 2006 Benjamin Graber

Unstoppable

In this poem I purposely left out all punctuation to stress the unstoppable characteristic of a river.

Unstoppable

Rivers never stop
can never be held back
keep going until they
discover their heart’s
desire and dive
into the ocean
when they hit a bulwark
they flood the
countryside with grace
and pause only
to scale the wall
with greater determination
and splash down
the other side
if you try to stand
against the flow
you will only get swept
away into the enthusiasm

Unstoppable
driving to the
eternity of grace
my prayer is that
I could be an
unstoppable
river.

(c) 2006 Benjamin Graber

Abounding Glory

"For if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stone, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading though it was, how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more will the ministry of righteousness abound in glory." -2 Corinthians 3:7-9

Abounding Glory

His face was shining with the light
Emitted from a bush of flames,
So all who saw the glory there
Saw God revealed, and were ashamed;

His hand was honored with a staff
That in God’s will became a snake
To be a witness of God’s power
And cry for mercy for our sake;

His feet had stepped on holy ground
And wandered in God’s company,
And marched to Pharaoh’s mighty throne
When in his heart he longed to flee;

His eyes had seen the back of God,
And saw the miracles performed;
He watched the sea be torn in two,
And plagues which made all Egypt mourn;

He witnessed so much glory then!
And yet, it cannot be compared
To all the glory found in Christ,
That’s ours to live in, ours to share!

(c) 2005 Benjamin Graber