2024-01-22

to bear wit'ness*...


(to the truth… that hesed/agape is all - motive, method, means & end*)



And as a child looks up to Mum, or Dad

they find their nurture in the love of them

(or else find nurture not, unless some tad

is spread around the world within the hems


of garments that are worn by others (sent

by that creative love), who do their job

and treat them as their children; who have rent

their hearts, and not just garments. They won't fob 


them off, as unimportant, for as such

their hearts now beat as one, with one who made

a world of people, where folk matter much.

The one-ness grows from heaven in Earth's shade


 - within the shade and cover of the flesh

of mother, as folk live within her womb.

So life on Earth, as we know it, will mesh

both parts of hell (that's life within a tomb),


and parts of heaven, "re-al-ized" inside

parameters that nurture life in young

(biology of blood, placentas hide,

yet function so to give, they are not stung!)


And life "as we now know it" quite depends

on maintenance of that togetherness,

that union, though through cord that has two ends

and will be done away with. We now bless


it for it is our lifeline, so to grow

till we come out, to where relationships

can start to be more, as good friends who know

each other well, and won't just "pass as ships


within the night", or if they must, they keep

a vigil of remember-ance themselves

to not forget, or live as though asleep

to their relationship, recall to health


their friendship, by some choice to look, or touch,

imbibe, reflect, their action is a sign

to them, if to no other very much,

a mem'ry, real-ization of design.


And he looked up1, and we might too, if we

would listen2, learn, and follow in his wake3.

A way of covenantal love4, to be

awake to his good leadership3, no fake!



Footnotes:


Jesus Christ's raison d'etre: "For this reason I was born and came into the world: to bear witness to the truth" (John 18:37). 


The greek word to-bear-witness is the word μαρτυρέω (martureo), from which we derive the English word martyr. That being, in the first Century Christian worldview, the ultimate way to bear witness to something, with your life.


Paul's comment that without love, no bearing witness (martyrdom) is worth anything, no faith is of avail, no communication in any language is worthwhile, and that prophecy and words of knowledge will pass on, faith, hope and love being greater, but only love, in the end, will remain/ abide/ live-on (1 Cor 13)


  1. Looking up

  • Nebuchadnezzar… lived like a beast of the field for 7 years, then at the end of that time "He looked up to the  heavens, and his sanity was restored to him" (Daniel 4:34)

  • Ps 121:1-2 "I look up to the mountains… my help will come from YHWH who made heaven & earth"

  • Ps 123:1 "LORD I look up to you. Up to heaven where you rule"

  • But as for me, I will look to the Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me. Mic 7:7 NRSV-CI

  • Strangely, according to the Septuagint; "Once when Jesus was by Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing before him with a drawn sword in his hand. Jesus went to him and said to him, “Are you one of us, or one of our adversaries?” He replied, “Neither; but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” And Jesus fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and he said to him, “What do you command your servant, my Lord?” The commander of the army of the Lord said to Jesus, “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Jesus did so. Josh 5:13‭-‬15, GRCBRENT ,NRSV-CI (know that the Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, made before the time of Jesus of Nazareth (whom I take to be God's christened Leader of Humanity; and that the Hebrew name Joshua is said in  Greek as 'Iesous, and that that ancient Greek name is normally translated into English as Jesus)

  • Jesus looked up… to heaven, gave thanks and broke the bread etc (Luke 9:16; 19:5; John 6:5; 11:41; 17:1)

  • Jesus looked up, gave a deep groan, or a loud cry, & said to the man "Open up!" (Mark 7:32-35)


  1. "Don't look down" (Prov 4:25); "Look up"  or "lift up your heads", (Luke 21:28)


  1. The Greek word used in first Century Christian writings (μαθητής; pronounced mathētēs) means not simply "information learner", but in the context of either the Greek Philosophers or the Jewish Rabbis, a "way-of-life-learner, a follower, a sharer of life and their whole approach to life" ie following their leadership in life.


  1. Jesus himself spoke of himself as a disciple or follower of the Father's will. Indeed his "family" were those who "do my father's will" (Mark 3:32-35). Isaiah sees the suffering servant of the Lord as  morning by morning being wakened 'as a disciple', with opened eyes & ears. (Isa 50:4-5) And Jesus said he got his cues from what he saw his father doing, as well as what he heard from his father in heaven (John 8:26-28,38 etc.). God's example of covenantal/ friendship love with Noah (Gen 9:1-17), was to make a covenant with all living flesh, by stating to Noah, and linking his statement to a tangible, well at least visible object, that drew attention to itself, and committing himself to a course of remember-ance, linking his own recall to every time he saw that object. (Maybe he also hoped that his children would follow his example. I could bet that Jesus did!). 

Abraham, asked God how he could know for sure that God would act in a certain way in the future. God's response was to bind himself by a covenant promise tied to a bbq (see Genesis 15).



Bibliography:






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