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May 11–17 ❘ View from Nebo

Poem and discussion centering on feeling stuck and unable to progress, inspired by Deuteronomy 34:1–6.

View from Nebo

From Pisgah’s peak, I see
bleak desert stretched behind me,
dotted with hidden springs
of miracle, each a stepping stone
across a valley of shadow and sacrifice.

Before lies a sweeping vision
of green land flowing with cream
and sweetness, crackling with fat
of roasted meat and browned crusts
of fresh-baked bread. I see peace
and rest and fullness ahead

but I cannot find my way forward.
Have I wandered in wilderness
so long only to fall short?
Have I made some ancient error
for which I must ever bear
unintended consequence?

Perhaps I am not always guilty
when the Lord withholds
what I want. He calls to me,
invites if I’m willing to exchange
my promised land for His own.

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May 4–10 ❘ Leprosy

Poem and discussion centering on repentance and purity, inspired by Numbers 12.

Leprosy

Like Miriam, you have followed
one wayward thought to another,
then wrong act to act,
till you are riddled through,
buried in a blizzard beyond
your ability to escape.

Like Aaron, I am a foolish guide
called to guard you safely home
but was blind to your straying
till too late. Now, I beseech mercy
at the seat of Him who holds
all power to heal.

What takes time to lose,
takes time to find.
I will not move camp even after
seven times seventy days.
I will wait at desert’s edge
till God brings you in again
clean.

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April 27–May 3 ❘ House of the Lord

Poem and discussion centering on the construction of the tabernacle in the wilderness, inspired by Exodus 36–40.

House of the Lord

Children of Israel reared
a tabernacle in Sinai with eyes
set to find God in the details—
gold angels, brass vessels, silver rings,
linen hangings, acacia pillars, fine leather,
perfume, dyes of blue and purple and red.
Our temple also

               bears His chisel marks
in every marble facing,
His careful brushstrokes
in each painting, fire
of His countenance rising
in stained glass flames from earth
to sky. He is stitched by hand
into rugs, curtains, altar cloths,
and cushions

               where we sit
in quiet and light at center
of this re-created Eden.
The veil hangs thin,
blowing open at slightest stir.
We rest

               for a moment,
before taking our next steps
on the path forward.

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April 20–27 ❘ Provocation

Poem and discussion centering on the provocation in the wilderness, inspired by Exodus 32.

Provocation

When it seems the Lord delays
His descent to direct me through desert,
my fears mix with fire of anxiety
and out come all my familiar gods:

precious plans of personal design,
pursuit of financial security,
soft swaddle of sympathy from arms of flesh,
retreat to knowledge without insight.

I have often laid offerings of time,
talent, and energy upon their altars.
I have prayed for them to cover
old wounds and imagined these idols
to be rescues of last resort.

But raw life eventually grinds
all to powder, erodes me
to a primitive state in wilderness.

I return, remembering the only One
who ever led me out of Egypt
dropped small, sweet crumbs
from heaven.

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April 13–19 ❘ Thunder

Poem and discussion centering on the Lord’s appearance to Moses on Mount Sinai, inspired by Exodus 19.

Thunder

A voice from the mountain
neither still nor small

rumbles down stony slopes
across open plain

solid as boulder rolling
or granite slab strong enough

to brace covenants against breaking
and hold indelible law through flood

of millennia. We wear away,
crumble under time’s duress,

but the voice from the mountain
rumbles on, echoes around,

grants power and endows
with commandments not a few.

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April 6–12 ❘ Escape

Poem and discussion centering on the pharaoh during the time of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt, inspired by Exodus 7:1–5.

Escape

There’s a bit of Pharaoh in me,
a voice that reasons miracles
aren’t real if they can be explained.

Israel’s children keep one night
etched in collective memory,
but I forget what I suffered yesterday
and shed from mind old plagues
and pleas once relief comes.

Signs multiply—safety, comfort,
smoothed paths from enemy
to friend—but I harden
under glut of answered prayers.
I imagine myself entitled to
and author of my own grace,

          yet God persists.
More patient than sift of wind
through Nile grass or ripple of life
lapping silted banks, He erodes
Egypt grain by grain from my soul,
sets me free to follow Him
into wilderness.

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March 30–April 4 ❘ Rahab’s Passover

Poem and discussion centering on Rahab who helped hide Israelite spies in Jericho, inspired by Joshua 2:9–13.

Rahab’s Passover

Salvation is a scarlet cord
as red as lamb’s blood
offered by Joshua’s spies
as a sign to set apart
one house and those hidden within,

to preserve a family line
as a blessing for all nations
through another Joshua—
long-awaited Son offering
scarlet tokens of salvation.

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March 23–29 ❘ Uraeus

Poem and discussion centering on the pharaoh of Egypt during Israelite Exodus, inspired by Exodus 1:22.

Ureaus

Pharaoh condescended
to let the girl babies live—
he saw no threat in them.
He didn’t suspect deceit from midwives
whose training in deliverance
was first and second nature.
His all-seeing eye overlooked mothers
with something to hide and sisters
guarding against the destroyer.
His own daughter easily evaded
his defenses. She drew his downfall
from the Nile and brought it
straight home to his bosom.

His whole life,
Pharaoh mistook women.
He little regarded the seed of Eve
and their deep-seated enmity
for snakes.

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March 16–22 ❘ Type and Shadow

Poem and discussion centering on Joseph of Egypt as a type and shadow of the Savior, inspired by Genesis 37–45.

Type and Shadow

Joseph seems like a regular guy
with a normal life and plans
for the future. He has a family
he didn’t choose but loves
anyway with that kind of love
a child gives permanently
to the people he builds his story on.
He’s learned a few things—

how to trust God and make
the best of a bad situation,
how to offer the undeserving
a chance to prove
and reprove themselves,
how not to spoil a big finish
by rushing past pain
to get to the end.

But other than that,
he seems like anyone else.
Or rather, what anyone could be
if we paid attention to who’s behind us
catching sun and casting
long, deep shadows forward.

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March 9–15 ❘ Many Colors

Poem and discussion centering on how stories in Genesis prefigure our own longings for redemption, inspired by Genesis 37:3–4.

Many Colors

Clothes don’t make us,
though they hint at possibilities,
like prophetic dreams
and well-chosen baby names.

One could wear blue as sign
of sadness or love of open sky,
red as show of pride
or badge of shame. Black
and white at times spell out
internal conflict, or ombré
when no frequency of visible
light quite defines ambivalence.

Yahweh offers me a garment
of refracted glory—some day.
I struggle in wrappings
of temporary self-expression
and shifting guise, reluctant
to discard withered fig leaves
and be seen naked.

When does it end, this trip
and fall from sheltered garden,
this abduction into Egypt?
When will this ark, driven along rivers
and floods, reach my land of promise?
I long to look up and see God
running to meet me, to feel
tears on my neck as He weeps
a good long while.

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March 2–8 ❘ Leah at the Edges, Rachel’s Response

Poem and discussion centering on Leah and Rachel’s relationship as sisters and wives of Jacob, inspired by Genesis 29–30.

Leah at the Edges

If you measured my life
by low points and high,
all my loves and jealousies
recorded as scripture of extremes,

you’d miss times of stillness,
daily cycles when I fed
and clothed, cleansed
and smoothed out roughness.

You wouldn’t see the hours
I bore with wounds one can’t
ask friends to fast and pray for
because there is no cure for life,

no dramatic rescue for one
merely stuck in everyday mud.
But maybe you don’t need
to feel the weight of all this water

underneath each cresting wave.
Maybe there is truth enough
to glean from spare detail
and beauty enough at the edges

to sketch a face with tender eyes
that you can be pleased with,
as though you had returned
from a long journey
and seen the face of God.

Rachel’s Response

Maybe our father persuaded Leah,
told her men only want
one thing—maybe two—
and if she gave those to Jacob,
he’d come around.
She was young and naive,
as I was. I can’t blame her
for loving Jacob past reason,
as I did.

But was it a small thing
that she took my husband,
my promised place as the first?
Wasn’t it enough that she mocked
my famine with her fullness,
but her wolves must also devour
my lamb? As older sister,
she should have protected me,
not turned enemy.

In the end, it doesn’t matter
where fault first took hold—
in my father, my sister, me.
We forgave. We lived and let live.

And when I died,
you should have heard Leah.
Her sobs emerged from a place
deeper than sorrow.
Her groans poured forth unbidden,
as though she were giving birth
to another chance for deliverance.

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February 23–March 1 ❘ Lot’s Argument

Poem and discussion centering on being in the world but not of the world, inspired by Genesis 19:1–26.

Lot’s Argument

I don’t ask for much—not fame,
power, or extraordinary calling.
I don’t covet wide acquaintance.
I enjoy little things: comfortable home,
loyal family, safe living. I want love
and respect only from those I love
and respect. I’d readily leave next-door
strangers to the consequence
of their own lusts,

but I’m caught by contract
between what I want and what I owe.
God gives me no out—I must love
my neighbor and my enemy.
I must deal with this smutty,
smudged-up world against inclination.

So forgive me if I seem irritated,
a bit reluctant to strike a bargain.
I’m trying to fit an ill-suited bill,
testing ways to defend faith
from casual vandals and violators
without becoming a target,
working out what it means
to serve and survive.

I just need a little more time
to finagle a way through this contradiction
before it all blows up in my face.

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February 16–22 ❘ Multitudes

Poem and discussion centering on the Abrahamic covenant, inspired by Genesis 15:5.

Multitudes

My children are seedlings still
with roots tentatively threading earth
and branches spreading heavenward.
I can’t yet imagine grandchildren,
much less progeny innumerable
as dust,

               but they will come.
As Abraham’s child, I am heir
to new names and promised lands.
I already bear little cuts that come
from pruning and practicing
sacrifice.

               My family will grow
like an aspen stand intertwined
at base though miles apart on surface.
We will multiply like rust-red buds
bursting in spring, like gold-coin leaves
shed to forest floor in autumn.

               I must cultivate carefully.
How many tender ears will hear
the words I say to one child now
withered by sorrow? Look
toward the night sky. Count
all the stars in heaven
if you can.

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February 9–15 ❘ Building an Ark

Poem and discussion centering on preparing for the spiritual floods in life, inspired by Genesis 6–7.

Building an Ark

I’ve hammered planks together more or less
according to instructions from the Lord,
and stretched to meet my cubits, I confess,
by asking Him to multiply the boards.

Three stories are complete within my hull,
chock-full of needful things in careful stacks.
I’ve pitched both in and out my mortal soul
to keep the world from leaking through the cracks.

I’ve set a single window at the top
so I can let in light as need may be,
and cut a door so I can open up
to gather all my dear ones near to me.

I’ve kept all God’s commands as understood,
so surely He won’t need to send the flood.

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February 2–8 ❘ God Weeps

Poem and discussion centering on God’s example of righteous parenthood, inspired by Moses 7:28-37.

God Weeps

Parent of all parents,
for whom there is no end
to posterity, is your grief
also eternal?

Your tears once rushed
like flood from heaven,
all earth swept by swells
as you stretched wide to rending.

I have seen my own child suffer
and have refused to be comforted,
as if to accept peace
meant to abandon hope.

Teach me how to mourn
and not drown. Show me
a promised land. Help me hear
joy singing faintly in the distance.

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January 26–February 1 ❘ Acceptable Offering

Poem and discussion centering on what constitutes an acceptable offering to the Lord, inspired by Moses 6:3; Psalm 23.

Acceptable Offering

Scripture means little
till you’ve lived it,
inhabited its words
like a way-house,
wrapped yourself in sorrow
like a second-hand jacket.

In the midst of affliction,
my table holds
one broken heart laid out,
one contrite spirit sliced thin.
I taste only ashes
of this single sacrifice.

I know it isn’t good to focus
so wholly on one need
to the hollowing out
of all others, but I feel
like a foolish child, slow to speak
and slower to understand.

Perhaps if I give
every open wound,
every raw nerve and scrap of hope
within me, it will be enough
and my offering will be
acceptable to the Lord.

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January 19–25 ❘ Cain

Poem and discussion centering on Eve’s relationship with her son Cain, inspired by Genesis 4:1–16 and Moses 5:16–41.

Cain

From the beginning,
he was willful and always
wanting more.

Gardener that I am,
I hoped to train his nature
toward stubborn love of God
and desire for growing good.

At first, it seemed to take—
his arguments with Abel ended.
He worked the land, married well,
made outward offerings to the Lord.

But something inside was amiss,
something no mother imagines
when she gazes into newborn eyes
and heaven binds her heart
with love’s first green tendrils.

I thought I’d learned all about hard
choices and the sorrow
consequence
can deliver, but now

I am as God,
knowing good and evil
offer boughs of heavy fruit
to every hungry heart.

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January 12–18 ❘ Spiritual Creation

Poem and discussion centering on spiritual versus physical creation, inspired by Genesis 2:4–5, Moses 3:4–5, and Abraham 4.

Spiritual Creation

When darkness blurs hard lines
before dawn brings all to focus,
I counsel with God
to create in spirit a new day:

          eat good food
          keep home clean
          speak in kindness
          follow Christ

Then I go and do
half the plan:

          eat what I shouldn’t
          don’t sweep up all that falls
          lose heart and mind to moment
          reach breaking point and cry

Jesus, Son of God,
have mercy on me!

Day sinks again to dusk.
I return and report my chaos.
Hard line upon line upon line
I lay at Father’s feet.

He takes each stripe and heals
what I have done. He gives
another day for me to rise
and create in spirit and body.
He names me Good.

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January 5–11 ❘ Jochebed

Poem and discussion centering on Moses’s mother Jochebed and Moses’s vision of God, inspired by Moses 1:9–22.

Jochebed

I follow Moses too closely—
a mother who watches secretly
from across a great distance
will sometimes hover.

The night I saw him in midst of vision,
God’s glory was veiled from me
though it burned like reflected bonfire
from my son’s face,

but I saw the shining man afterward,
gilded pharaoh in painted pomp.
I feared Rameses had found him
at last. Hands pressed to mouth,

I cried in my mind,
You cannot have him!

The being sprouted claws and tore
like furious falcon-headed god
screaming for blood.
Such bitterness I hadn’t seen

since the day I set my baby in the river
in desperate last effort to save him.
Knee-deep in mud and obscured
by whispering reeds,

God heard every word I drummed
unceasingly at heaven’s door.
He answered then
as He does now.

I suppose He knows well
how to watch and hover
and wait for the moment when
a child finally cries out.

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December 29–January 4 ❘ Another Exodus

Poem and discussion centering on how the recurring theme of exodus has formed the character of God’s chosen people down through the ages, inspired by Exodus 14–17.

Another Exodus

Maybe Laman and Lemuel thought Moses
was a founding myth or metaphor
for Israel’s will to live free.
Maybe they believed he really had lived—
a trickster who twisted free of Egypt
to become ruler by dint of cunning—
but who can divine embellishment
from truth after centuries of retellings?

          So in the wilderness,
they mourned flesh pots of home
and wondered that Jerusalem
should lack graves enough to hold them.
They murmured at every setback,
grew complacent in success.

Nephi took manna literally.
When he hungered, he made a bow
and hunted. When he reached the sea,
he dug for ore, forged tools, built a boat.
He believed and went and did

          as though he could part water
and make a highway to the promised
land by filling the ocean spoonful
by spoonful with dry earth
at the Lord’s command.

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