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Alyssa Underwood Nov 2015
The perfect Christmas gift—
not because we've been so good
but because we couldn't be
"Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past He humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future He will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan-- The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."   Isaiah 9:1-2,6

"'She will give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.'"  Matthew 1:21

~~~
Alyssa Underwood Nov 2015
I would not know that wounded hearts will never bend
Except it's by the gentlest wind
Had You not blown Your love on me

I did not know that arrows sprung with poisoned darts
Could be dislodged from human hearts
Till You began to set me free

How should I know that crushing loss can by its pain
Yield intimacy's most treasured gain
Unless You gave Your Word to me?

I could not know that failures worse than greatest fears
Might actually bless through staining tears
This soul undone by Your decree

But now I know that Love's own touch
Brings untold joy which healeth much
From One Who cleaves so faithfully
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alyssa Underwood Nov 2015
O morning sky of endless blue
Tinged with purply-pinky hue
You tell me of His mercies new
Whose heart pursues my own

O geese in wingèd winter's flight
Your honking cries arouse delight
And lift my gaze to seek thy sight
As wooing from His hand

O softest breeze which skims my face
And stirs with such mysterious grace
My soul to reach for Love’s embrace
You brush me with His kiss

O snowflakes falling to the ground
You pierce my heart without a sound
To crave a purity only found
Beneath a bloodied cross

O setting sun in half-light glowing
Waning day’s last glorious blush showing
You paint with fire my spirit’s own knowing—
This life is fading fast

O stars of midnight’s blackest sky
Paraded forth, you pull my eye
Toward One Who speaks this ceaseless cry:
“I’m coming back for you.”

O creeping fog to dawn’s light clinging
You whisper, Love’s veiled message bringing,
With haunting echoes faintly singing,
“Lose all of you in Him.”
Alyssa Underwood Nov 2015
Finding another poet who seems
to write your own heart is like
coming into a familiar garden
when the light is just right
For all of you
Alyssa Underwood Nov 2015
To agape love someone is to hunger
for their eternal life and their abundant life
even when it seems impossible to hope for them
Alyssa Underwood Nov 2015
We're awakened to our insatiable longing for heaven
through both beauty and the painful marring of it.
For beauty hints to us of that for which we are truly made,
and its marring shouts that we are truly not meant to find it here.

We can be eternally grateful for beauty lost when we realize
that it's one of the great secret-tellers of the universe.
Still we fear it so and often fear even to hope for the beauty itself,
though they are a necessary cycle that fuels us on and drives us home.

We cannot deny or diminish our intense longing for beauty--
to see it and have it and be it, and we cannot pretend that its
dreadful loss does not press down upon us like a crushing weight.
We must let it crush us until our ache for heaven is excruciating.
Alyssa Underwood Nov 2015
Even if love is never returned,
never even received,
it is never in vain
for love never fails

To love someone
though you mean nothing to them
may seem too cruel a burden
for the heart to bear

But the only thing worse
than not being loved
is to not love

And so the greatest tragedy
of love spurned or lost
would be to stop loving

For to cease loving
that which causes us pain
would be to let the pain win

But for as long as we love,
really love with Christ's own heart,
no matter what else happens
we win

Love without pain
remains unproven
and therefore is meaningless

But love through pain invokes
nothing less than the miraculous
and inspires even the incredulous

Only continued love
can redeem the pain of loving
and only a Perfect Love
can heal love's scalding wound
~~~
Sometimes the only way left to love someone is to forgive them and let them go while still hoping and praying for their very best.

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."  1 Corinthians 13:1-8a

"And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him."  - 1 John 4:16
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