“I take comfort in the fact that – as the psalmist proclaims – God is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. As a result of God’s enduring strength, I am exhorted to give God both love and praise.” –Mark Almquist-Murray, Fruit of the Vine

Query: How do you acknowledge your finitude and God’s infinity?

The photographer composes

By the rule of thirds

The painter composes a still life

With the fruit of the harvest

An empty bowl

Whatever is to hand

The practice always more

About the seeing than the sight

Wordsmiths, too, craft a composition

Hammering away with pen and ink

Tossing a few more sticks on the fire

Adding space for breath and flame

Working the medium in the red-hot moment

Then polishing, polishing the tarnish away

A musician composes hope

Makes a work for another day

That comes to life only

When gut and wood and hair and wind

Begin to cast their earthly magic

The work of one’s hands is a holy thing

The art of a life seen in thirds

Near enough to others for harmony

Bears a fruit worth contemplation

Offers daily grace to the composer

–Bethany Lee, from “Composing a Life” in The Breath Between