Skip to main content

The Stages of Life (New Year)

 



              THE “STAGES” OF LIFE


The clock of time is ticking as the New Year now awaits;

We stand behind the curtain, the old year’s getting late;


The footlights are just coming on as we step out on stage;

Life’s past script is behind us, we prepare to turn the page

That reveals the new year’s stories. What will the future hold?

The playwright hasn’t told us. He lets the book unfold;


No good to try to read ahead, only He knows what is there;

We take the parts assigned to us, only He knows what is fair.

We only know that come what may, the assigned role must be played;

It’s up to us to make it work, in this life there are no trades;


And so we sing and dance and cry, each day brings something new;

We do the best we can, because we know when day is through

We once again will take the stage to take our final bow;

Surrounded by the witnesses in clouds we see them now*

The trees of the field will clap their hands**, we receive the golden crown

And we follow the flood lights to the throne, before Him we cast it down.***.


The reviews are in. He says well done, enter in to the joys that wait;

You have fought the fight, you have kept the faith, your heavenly reward is great.


In eternity the years are marked not by calendars and days;

And our only role in that heavenly script is to give Him continuous praise.


*Hebrews 12:1
**Isaiah 55:12

***Revelation 4:10-11


© Joan Rowden Hart 2019

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Passion

  “Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age”..  (James Joyce) I’ve often been accused of being too passionate, of caring too much about certain things.  But I believe that  passion, also defined as fervor or zeal, is  one of the essential core values of human life, along with the Apostle Paul’s Biblical list of the virtues of faith, hope and charity.  Passionate people have strong opinions and usually articulate them very well.  We are also perfectionists, and we don’t handle incompetence in the public arena very well, all of which tend to preclude us from being the most popular person in the room.  I long ago accepted the fact that I won’t have the largest funeral in Lebanon, nor will my obituary make the front page. But not everyone seems to care that much about anything other than their own lives.  T.S. Eliot once said, “It is obvious that we can no more explain pas...
Post a Comment
Read more

COMMUNION ON THE MOON

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. (Melody Beattie) Americans need a day dedicated to gratitude. I have noticed that in the lineup of most of our holidays that Thanksgiving is perhaps the one least given over to secularism - the one we still observe in a traditional fashion. We need it to keep our focus clear and to teach our children what it means to be thankful for family, friendship and faith. We need a time to gather around the table with extended family and enjoy turkey and dressing and gravy, two kinds of potatoes, cranberries, hot rolls, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie and whipped cream. We need it, not for the calories, but to create an awareness that there are those who don’t have those blessings, because in the hectic pace of our everyday lives we tend to forget those in need. Family and food are important, but above all else, Americans need a rededication to our faith. Faith brought the pilgrims to the ne...
Post a Comment
Read more

A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT

  Years ago, there was a movie called “A River Runs Through It” based on a novel by Norman Maclean. I didn’t see the movie, but the title has been running through my head for several days now. The Rio Grande is just one of hundreds of rivers that runs through this great North American continent. More than 60,000 illegal immigrants have crossed the Mexican border in the past nine months, many of them using the Rio Grande as their point of entrance. Louie Gohmert, a Texas Congressman describes his recent trip to the river during the pre-dawn hours. He saw pregnant women and those with nursing infants and small children, and many teenagers, 72 people in all that morning and a third of them were children unaccompanied by adults. Border agents pulled on blue latex gloves when they saw them arriving. One told the Congressman that many of them have scabies, lice and even more serious infectious diseases that probably won’t be noticed until after they have traveled with others on buse...
Post a Comment
Read more