Patricia Tiffany Morris has written an Ode to this interesting, frantic, celebrated November event.
oh barren page
blank and white. . .
At the bottom of her November calendar, she wrote these wonderful words:
let God write my life story!
Those who died for Christ
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1,2 New American Standard
Testimony
They thought they’d sent me
alone to the gallows,
but I didn’t go alone.
I went with the One
Who went there before me.
o
Burning of Jan Hus (John Huss) at the stake at the Council of Constance in 1415, artist: Carl Gustaf Hellqvist
From watch-posts, pedestals, columns,
they leapt to life – claws out,
jaws wide – their roars not imagined
by those dreaming in safety.
Their strength pursued vagrants, who too
were prowling – worse than any lion –
bearing the image of the Eternal
yet roaming the night to thieve and maul.
One old guardian, full-maned but thin,
awoke still half stone, claws clutching
shining spheres of marble
to menace and wield. At times
the night, under the Italian skies,
and the dim streets, were massed
with legions of lions seeking vengeance
for the corruption of their City.
Out of love, they gave real lions –
let loose from the Duke’s gardens –
wide berth, making them think they were
simply their own magnificent shadows.
Faith and Imagination ~ Maria Ott Tatham 