Meribah (Numbers 20:13)

-


Meribah,

where the chosen children

showed displeasure.

Voices calling out

to the one whose staff they have followed.

Ungrateful,

as we all tend to be.



Meribah,

a place where sanctity is beheld.

The holiness of the one,

who parted the waters,

who plagued Egypt,

who caused rivers to flow blood.

The holiness of one who promises,

despite our complaints.


Meribah,

the waters where we quarrel.

Given what sacrifices have dared to ask,

still drawn

by bread,

water

and golden calves.



copyright 2025 - Donald P James Jr.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jesus in the Snow

-
Image
This picture hung on the side of my parents refrigerator when I was a child.  I was always intrigued by the black and white blotches which did not seem to form anything recognizable.  One day I asked my mother about the photograph.  She said it was the face of Jesus and that if I looked closely I could see Him. I could not for the life of me see our Lord in the meaningless menagerie of spots.  I remember standing at the side of the refrigerator staring at the picture as it hung there almost taunting me. One day, in my teen years, when I wasn't really trying to see the face in the black and white blotches anymore, I saw Him.  Maybe I needed to see the face more, at that age, when I was on the threshold of adulthood then when I was a child.  Now, as the years have passed, I find it difficult not to see Him in the patterns of melting snow on the mountainside. ~ I have a question for you.  When you look at the patterns of melting snow, do yo...
Read more

Matthew 19

-
Image
Does our law allow these things? And with the question He points back to scripture. "Have you not read". All the answers are right there. But you have to have eyes to see and ears to hear. Why then... and but...? Because you are dense, hard to teach. Two shall unite, man and woman, as in the days of creation. No man may separate or redefine. They ask a question, specific, and the Lord's answer encompasses so much more. They question divorce and He defines marriage. Does His law allow these things? copyright 2018 - Donald P James Jr https://www.amazon.com/stores/Donald-P.-James-Jr./author
Read more

Daily Bread (Proverbs 30:7-9)

-
Image
Two things I ask of you, Lord; do not refuse me before I die; Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the Lord?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God Proverbs 30:7-9 "I have these needs," she says. "I need an abundance of things.  My closet is full.  My pantry is stocked.  And yet, if I really think about it, I'm not happy.  I've recently discovered this about myself.  I don't know how to change.  I don't know where I should direct my life.  I feel that my world is cluttered... a mess." The listener sits back in her chair.  The woman across the room is crying out for help.  The listener knows she is limited to the wisdom God will pour out.  She prays silently and speaks firmly. "Things. Stuff." The listener begins, "It burdens your soul.  You cannot find happiness when you see...
Read more

Watch Out for Those

-
Image
He wore a robe that flowed behind him.  His tassels were neat, and his scripture box was in place.  His strides were confident.  He was greeted with the nodded heads of respect.  Toward some he returned their respectful actions, on others he cast a scowl, a judgement. "Watch out for these." A man dressed in tattered garments said to those gathered round. The words caught the ear of the well-dressed man.  He approached the crowd as the man who spoke a warning pointed in his direction. "These teachers of the law," the man at the center of the crowd continued. "Of whom do you speak, Rabbi?" The well-dressed man spoke his final word with contempt.  He did not consider the man before him to be anything but a vagabond preacher with no real knowledge of the scriptures. "Answer me this." The man in tattered clothes stood up from the crowd and moved toward the ordained teacher of the law. "Do you not find pleasure in the respect given to you?" ...
Read more

Embattled Denominations

-
Image
Embattled denominations, tearing apart the precious body of our savior. Laws of man, apart from God's word, twisted by politics and the quest for filled pews. One phrase, one word, and one religion is saved, while another is doomed. Jesus taught to seek Him, not the laws of men, the glory of modern Pharisees, or the virtue of politics. copyright 2025 - Donald P James Jr https://www.amazon.com/stores/Donald-P.-James-Jr./author
Read more

Empty Nets

-
Image
The sea lapped against the side of their boats.  The night had been unproductive for both vessels.  Men with muscular builds and hair covered limbs hauled their nets from the water.  Even empty, lifting the nets from the sea was a chore for tired arms. "The catch is barely enough to feed my family." The speaker of the complaint was solidly built.  His clothing had soaked up sea water and sweat.  His day was ending with mounting frustration. "Things will get better, Simon." For a brief moment Simon believed his brother's passive response to their looming starvation, or more urgently their inability to pay the tax, had some basis in reality. "Once again, Andrew, do I have to listen to your view of our lives, wasted on fish and the call of the sea?" "It would be possible... to be something different." "We have been fishermen all our lives.  You and I know no other trade.  I cannot, overnight, become a carpenter.  Neither can you.  I am not ...
Read more

Deep Calls Out to Deep (Psalm 42:7)

-
Image
A yearning, in the depths of the created. Calling out into the vastness, one soul, seeking one God. In the psalm it might be a deer, seeking a stream with clear water. It might be a soul, seeking a union meant to purify. A longing, a cry for intimacy. A lyric sung by a voice from the deepness of one realm to another. copyright 2025 - Donald P James Jr https://www.amazon.com/stores/Donald-P.-James-Jr./author
Read more

Talents and Gifts

-
Image
He opened his eyes, although he wasn't certain they were ever really closed.  He sat in a chair, neither comfortable nor uncomfortable.  An open field surrounded him.  Green grass and wild flowers of yellows and purples stretched to the horizon.  The only interruption, a blemish, on the idyllic scene, was another man in a chair facing his. The other man seemed out of focus.  His features were unclear.  The first man, the one who had just opened his eyes, tried to identify the man who was little more than a blemish against the meadow. "Who are you?" He asked, not expecting an answer, as the idea that he was in a dream brought on by... that was it... the accident.  He'd been driving too fast.  He lost control of his Ferrari. 'That was a fantastic car,' he mused, forgetting about the man, without discernable features, sitting across from him. "What have you done with that which I have given you?" The out of focus man finally spoke. The Ferrari, yes, ...
Read more

Lukewarm

-
Image
"So, because you are lukewarm,  neither hot nor cold,  I am about to spit you out of my mouth." Revelation 3:16 Saint John Write the Book of Revelation on the Isle of Patmos - Gaspar de Crayer Neither refreshing, nor soothing. Neither quenching the thirst  on a hot day, nor healing as warmth should. You are lukewarm. You can claim to be neither cold, nor hot. Your temperature disgusts. You are to be spit out of the mouth. You are lukewarm. You have seen the falling away, the weakening of every Gospel. You place the world in your view and cast off the Word. You are lukewarm. Laodicea, your wealth, your position in this world, means nothing, if you neither refresh or heal. If you are lukewarm copyright 2024 - Donald P James Jr https://www.amazon.com/stores/Donald-P.-James-Jr./author
Read more

The Dash

-
Image
This story is a prequel to the novel 'Afternoons with Mister D'   An early October day.  The leaves were changing.  A maple, marking the location they arrived at, had turned golden a few weeks ago.  Already it had dumped nearly all of its ornamentation.  Two young men, friends since the days of grammar school, stood beside a rectangular boundary of light green grass, planted at the end of summer. "I'm joining the seminary," One of them said.  His name was Jimmy Klein.  He'd graduated high school a little less than a year and a half ago.  He delayed going to college.  His friend, the one beside him, Nicolas, was beginning his second year at a state college. "You talked about taking that road when we were Freshmen in high school," Nicolas said. "Yeah... then second year came... Cross Country..." "I remember." Nicolas scuffed the grass with the soul of his shoe.  To everyone around him, he was known as Nick, or Nicolas D.  No one eve...
Read more