Magdalene's Redemption
I'd seen Him in the city streets
and heard Him in the square.
Both great and low would lend the ear
to listen to Him there.
His words could peal like thunder
or fall like summer rain.
His hands performed great wonders,
and gently eased men's pain.
I'd stayed within the shadows
and hoped He wouldn't see,
for all within the city knew
no saint would e'er touch me.
I'd felt the glares and known the scorn
 of others, small and great:
Among the people of the town
no leper felt such hate.
I knew the sin which stained my way
and tainted other lives,
and that as men left homes for me,
their hearts would leave their wives.
Oh, agony of agony
when from a dusky street
the holy men beheld my shame,
and threw me at His feet!
I dared not look Him in the face;
there was no place to hide.
Tho' many fear the death of law
I rather would have died.
But then .. that voice
of summer rain:
as sweet as flower's breath,
said "Oh, my child, I don't condemn"...
today there'd be no death.
How could this holy God-man spurn
the law to set me free?
This made no sense, yet when He spoke
my spirit leapt in me.
(and deeper still, within His voice,
God's voice rang tenderly!)
Oh can it be, could God touch me
'though foul to Him I came?
Oh, joy for which I'd dared not hope!
Oh bless His Holy Name!
© copyright may 2006 james a. smallish
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One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him,
and he went into the Pharisee's house and took his
place at the table. And a woman in the city,who was
a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee's
house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. She stood
behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his
feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she
continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment.
Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he
said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would
have known who and what kind of woman this is who
is touching him - that she is a sinner."
Jesus ... said to Simon, "Do you see this woman?
I entered your house; you gave me no water for my
feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and
dried them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but
from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing
my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she
has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell
you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven;
hence she has shown great love. ..." (from Luke 7:36-47)
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brief note from Mexico:
How sweet is the love of our Lord, Jesus Christ; how
patient, tender, kind, forgiving and compassionate beyond
all my ability to understand it! Oh, my soul, take refuge in
Him, for He is my sure help in times of trouble, and more
tender and patient than I am with myself. Praise Him,
oh, praise Him; in song, in word and in deed.....PRAISE HIM!!!
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