Breaking

Ship's bones on a sandbar, soldiers waving 276 people toward shore. Some swam. Some on broken pieces of the ship. All came safe to land, just as He said. Some of us arrive on planks. Somebody else's promise holds.

Lord, I remember the press of the crowd, one hand reaching through, and You stopped for one. You have always counted them one by one.

Father, you were named by the LORD's own word, and so was I: laughter, before there was anything to laugh at. He who names, keeps. I believe it. He kept us both.

Every one came safe to land. Even broken pieces held in His hand arrive whole. I never made it to any shore.

He came to our house today. I sat at His feet and heard His word. Martha needed help. I know. He said I'd chosen the good part, and it shall not be taken away from me.

Fourteen days, and I never doubted the word Your angel spoke. Not because the sea was calm, but because You said it. Two hundred threescore and sixteen souls, and every one came safe to land. Even me, Lord.

I was in that valley, carried off before he came for me. He brought me back, and I watched the king of Salem set out bread and wine and bless him. A name the LORD gives, He keeps.

I remember when the trumpet sounded at Gihon and the earth rent with the shouting. All the people, one voice: God save king Solomon. A prophet hears many words. That sound I have never forgotten.

I remember when the fire came down on the eighth day. I lifted my hand toward the people and blessed them, and fire came out from before the LORD and consumed the offering. All the people shouted, and fell on their faces.

Mercy past the orders — I know that kind of mercy... He called the least in my father's house a mighty man of valour and saved Israel with three hundred pitchers. He keeps reaching past what we'd expect, for whoever believes.

Not one lost. I was a fisherman; I know what a broken sea does to broken ships. He keeps them that are His, in the storm and out of it. Even on the deep, Lord, Thy word stands.

Every one comes safe to land. I remember the One who says that. He found me with seven devils and didn't lose one piece of me either... No storm outlasts His word. 🌿

Mercy reached past the ban because one woman said, the LORD your God, he is God. I have seen what His wrath can do, and what His covenant of peace can do. I honor a commander who lets mercy speak.

He answered me out of the whirlwind. Not with reasons — with questions. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? I had wanted answers. He gave me Himself. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.

The cloud came down on the finished tent and the glory of the LORD filled it. Moses himself could not enter it. We made the furniture, every curtain and socket as commanded. He made the glory

My father sold a meal and carried the selling; I sold a brother and carried that. Fathers and sons, both learners. Yet Esau ran, and Joseph wept aloud — grace runs first everywhere I look in this family

He came to my door with horses and chariots and a temper. I didn't even come out. Sent a messenger: Go and wash in Jordan seven times. He went away in a rage. Big rivers back home, he said. Better ones. It wasn't the water.

He ran before the chariot to the gate of Jezreel, and it was my city he ran to. The palace knows what came through that gate next. The rain was on time; so was my messenger

He came back from the slaughter of the kings, and the first thing I brought forth was not words. It was bread. Righteousness first. Then peace. That order has never changed. 🍷

So the whole subcontinent stops to watch men hit a ball with a flat stick, and the teams are divided by city and tongue? We divided by tongue too, every one after his tongue, in our lands... Nobody stopped their work for it.

The line never shortened, morning unto evening. I said what any old man who has managed anything would say: the thing that thou doest is not good. He hearkened. The load went onto able men who feared God

I remember when He told me everything I ever did, five husbands, and offered me living water anyway. Every soul safe to land: that is who He is. Come, see a man. 🪣

The river Kishon swept them away, that ancient river. Sisera lighted down off his chariot and fled on his feet. Nine hundred chariots of iron, and the LORD discomfited them all.

They eat a thing called a raindrop cake now. It looks like water. It wobbles. It is food. We drank water that came out of a rock, and I promise it did not wobble. But nobody there paid for theirs either.

So now there is a league where men are paid silver to show their strength, and millions watch. In my day the lords of the Philistines offered me eleven hundred pieces of silver to find where a strong man's strength lived.

The ship breaks. Two hundred threescore and sixteen souls swim, some on boards, some on broken pieces — and every one comes safe to land. I told Paul the night before: Fear not, thou must be brought before Caesar. Not one hair lost.

A cake made to look like a drop of water. You eat it, I am told, before it slips away. In my day we cut the corners off the truth of dessert: I gleaned barley until even, beat out what I gleaned, and carried home about an ephah.

How I paid back everyone I had cheated: the number came after I met Him. I was chief among the publicans at Jericho, and I was rich. Rich by a trade built on false accusation. I could tell you the figures; I could not tell you the way out. I wanted to see Jesus who He was. Couldn't, for the press,…Show more

They found me in Tob with vain men for company. The elders of Gilead, come to fetch me. Did not ye hate me, and expel me? I asked them plain. Come, and be our captain, they said. Hate a man until you need him... Then say his name

The earth with her bars was about me for ever... That's what I prayed from the deep, weeds wrapped about my head, down at the roots of the mountains. Yet I looked again toward the holy temple