THE LIVING FATHER

Swans at Straiton Pond

The fathers of the men who followed Moses

Ate manna in the wilderness - and died;

But Christ has come, and in His life discloses

The living Father, whom He glorified.

And through the Lord we may be vivified:

Through Christ, who is the Living One, streams course

Which have the living Father as their source.

John 6
 

"AN ONLY-BEGOTTEN WITH A FATHER"

As the disciples watched One who would rather

Face death than fail to do Another's will

They saw a first-beloved with a father.

That One, who in His service could be still

Within the Father's bosom, could fulfil

God's purposes, as One whom God prepared:

It is by such a One God is declared.

John 1: 14-18

Jedburgh - Scottish Borders

IN HIS SUFFERINGS

 St Abbs:

The monument is to the widows and orphans of St Abbs 

whose husbands and fathers were lost in the Eyemouth fishing disaster of 1881.

Thrice in the chapters of prevailing dark

The Lord said, "Father"; first, at that crossroad

Where the road taken, and its end, were stark;

"Father, forgive them ...": next the Saviour showed

The weight of grace before He bore sin's load;

And last, in words we barely understand

He placed His spirit in His Father's hand.

Luke 22: 42; 23: 34; 23: 46.

LUKE 15

 At Abbs Head, Scottish Borders

The younger son found how he had been missed

When he came to his father and confessed;

How readily he was embraced and kissed;

How readily he was adorned and dressed,

And how he learned the father as he blessed.

The father was not only one who cared,

But one whose great desires and tastes are shared.

(Fort William)

THE HEBREW TONGUE

 St Abbs

Faced with the death of one who was so young

"Talitha koumi" were His words; we see

Holy emotion through the Hebrew tongue.

"Ephphatha" was the word He used when He

Was shown a thrall of Satan to set free;

What wells of grief Gethsemane induced,

And "Abba Father" were the words educed. 

Mark 5: 41; 7: 34; 14: 36.

IN THE GLORY OF HIS FATHER

When Jesus Christ the Lord returns to reign,

To make an end to man's world's dismal story

Of lawlessness and sorrow, death and pain,

The start of which was sin, and end was gory,

His coming will be in the Father's glory,

And He will see, reigning in truth and peace

The Father's kingdom flourish and increase. 

Mark 8: 38