WHERE THE LEAVES DANCE

A soft breeze, a gentle sigh,

I’ll be where the leaves dance.

I’ll look up through at skies of blue

and fall within a trance.

In relaxed state, I’ll contemplate

and hear the wood thrush echoing.

His gorgeous tune releases me,

a distant place is beckoning.

How could God make these woods so fine?

All worries are asunder.

I’ll close my eyes and take it in,

this quiet place of wonder.

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

John 14:27

WHERE THE LEAVES DANCE

Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

John 14:1-2

As I sit back and look up through the tree branches, I remember the words of Jesus and that He is preparing a place for us. Today. That is one of the things the Son of God is doing right now. How cool is that, my fellow-believing forest dweller?

And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?" And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look at it.

Revelation 5:1-3

Continuing with this year's theme of Heaven, I know angels are also a part of Heaven. And I just so happened to be working on a poem entitled "The Authority of Revelation 5" in my For the Joy manuscript where this scroll is mentioned in Revelation 5. What did it look like? We don't know except it had seven seals and was held in the right hand of God. It was a strong angel with a loud voice who asked the question across the cosmos that no one could answer, that is, except Jesus, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, the Son of God, the Messiah. He took the scroll from His Father's right hand. He alone is worthy. He alone has authority.

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice: "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!"

Revelation 5:11-12

One mighty angel who proclaimed a question across the cosmos for all to hear and then masses of angels speaking with a loud voice together? Wow! Can you imagine how loud this was? Did John have to plug his ears? Well, the Bible doesn't say that John plugged his ears but can you imagine the sound? Amazing.

And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.

Revelation 8:2

A bit further in the book of Revelations, we read more about angels. After Jesus had broken the last seal (or seventh seal) on the scroll, seven angels were each given a trumpet to blast, beginning the events ending the age. This is the time to come that will destroy all evil.

I saw still another mighty angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud. And a rainbow was on his head, his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire. He had a little book open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars. When he cried out, seven thunders uttered their voices.

Revelation 10:1-3

This commanding, fierce image, and also with a loud voice, shows us the angel is given authority to execute (or begin) what is next. This and other angels might often have loud voices, although maybe there were soft-spoken angels. The angel Gabriel may not have needed to speak loudly to Mary about her being chosen to bear the Son of God but I think many Biblical accounts of angels show us they are fiercely capable of being loud. (More about Gabriel, in a moment!)

But in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants and prophets.

Revelation 10:7

God's timing is perfect. Ours is not. But we can trust His. And there will come a time (in His timing) when the seventh angel sounds his trumpet and the mystery of God is finished. Will servants and prophets from long ago come into full understanding of who God is? God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the triune Godhead from even in the book of Genesis when they were creating humankind, will be fully understood. And an angel, commanded by God, kicks that off.

Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, "Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!"

Luke 1: 26-28

Whammy Wow! So can you imagine this? We are only given two names of angels in all of the Bible: Gabriel and Michael. And it was to a young woman that Gabriel greeted with the exceptional news that she would become the mother of Jesus, the Son of God. Some people paint Mary as a simple, somewhat brainless tween, but if you read her reply in verses 46 through 55 of Luke 1, you will not read the ramblings of a little tweeny-bopper. What she said (and is consequently recorded) shows her knowledge, character, and humbleness. So important was her role and all according to God's plan. In fact, if God had not chosen Mary (or any other woman for that matter), there would have been no reason to choose twelve men to serve as the original disciples. God sent Gabriel to Mary.

But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit."

Matthew 1:20

How did Joseph feel and what did he think when he learned that his betrothed was pregnant? Well, he was planning to quietly divorce her. But an angel in a dream assured Joseph and explained things to him. Mary is the only woman to have been "impregnated" by the Holy Spirit. This unique condition brought forth an angel visit to Joseph in a dream, who in turn obeyed the angel's command to take Mary as his wife.

And the angel answered and said to him, "I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings."

Luke 1:19

Gabriel also visited Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist. Angels are making their rounds! But Zacharias didn't believe the angel's words and so Gabriel commanded Zacharias to be mute until the time when he wrote down the name "John" after the baby was born to his wife Elizabeth, old as she was. (But old age is nothing for God.)

Further angel accounts that come to mind are in 2 Kings 19:35 when a single angel kills 185,000 enemies as a result of King Hezekiah's prayerful plea for help. Daniel in the lion's den let King Darius know it was an angel who had shut the lion's mouths. (Daniel 6:21-22)

Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"

Jude, verse 9

Here is the only verse in the Bible where the angel Michael is named. We learn Michael is the archangel and contended with the devil, Satan. Do you look forward to learning what the other angels' names are in Heaven?

For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.

Psalm 91:11

What a beautiful promise! Although we can't always see angels, they are close to us. (I say 'can't always' because sometimes I wonder if maybe we had seen one but didn't realize it.) It will be wonderful to meet our guardian angel(s) someday who had watched over us in our lives! Will they shake our hand and say, "Boy, I remember the time when... but I was there to help you out, little did you know!" Or, "Yeah, that was me!" Yes, it will be wonderful to meet angels! 

But more so, it will be wonderful to meet, face to face, our Savior who sent them.

For the Joy: Christian Poems Reflecting on Christ's Death and Resurrection

I have changed my subtitle and back book blurb. The total amount of poems in this collection is at 35 now and I think that is where it will stay. I'm planning to published for Easter 2027 with the hopes that I can encourage anyone to have faith and reflect on God's inerrant Word. Prayers are greatly appreciated.

FOCUS ON PRAYER

Please pray that our country upholds established freedoms to worship and that our public schools do not mistreat Christian students and teachers. Keep praying for your family and loved ones. Don't give up.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Veery Glade is wonderfully summer now. The maples and beech and other trees around the glade are a dark green with very little yellow starting, which so happens in August. We didn't have a lot of veeries this year but still a few. The towees, catbirds, rose-breasted grosbeaks, and wood thrushes have filled the woods with their songs. They will begin to decline in song as July ends. It is a nice place to be, where the leaves dance. And won't it be glorious to be where the leaves dance with our Lord, beside angels, soaking in Heaven!