Every Knee

Every Knee

Christmas Poem, 2017

Behold! The Creation!

So perfectly made to move with us,

Bend for us,

Take us to amazing places to prove for us…

Yet we find frustration, gather in contemplation

To remove ourselves from Good.

Once done, the joints ache in the labor.

The walk is farther with no end in sight,

Always a fight

And a longing for something

That just might…change us.

So we run, run with the crowd, the masses,

Striving, winning and losing, living and dying.

Our muscles tense up, yet strong,

Full of opinions and commentary…

Painful sad songs in what wrongs.

Our head hangs lowered, eyes scrolling.

Time finds a way to become tangible

Marked now by scars, knee bumps and bruises.

We’ve let the world’s gravity keep us tethered

One disaster to the next.

What have we missed in all the texts?

Hearts so vexed

A plan all along,

We remember in the Season.

A cup of hydration in our weary run,

A sip of thirst-quenching water on our walk.

Was He the Giver? Am I the sinner? Can there be a winner?

The knee buckles.

We’ve carried our burdens far too long.

Dry bones ache and slow us down,

Temporary solutions, more contusions, retributions.

We’ve walked with this crutch, this open wound,

The world groans and longs for a healing,

Something redeeming.

Fall to your knees

And He hears our pleas

From the world’s deadly squeeze.

What does He give?

His Son for our soul’s very core,

Oh, Come Let Us Adore!

Immanuel, God with Us

In our critical condition

He heals the infection, bring us completion,

Transformation.

Heart replacement with Love’s precision,

Your decision, His Hope for our provision.

He disconnects, removes all our mess, gives us His best.

Spiritual therapy is guaranteed.

Peace begins with a bowed head and bent knees.

Every knee will bow

In rebellion or submission, in gratitude or omission

And every tongue will confess, He came to bless.

Find Him today and walk in His Light

Truth and grace came on Christmas night.

Merry Christmas & a Blessed New Year

Considerably yours, 

Coleene VanTilburg

Consider...the Knee

Consider the knee...

Anatomy . the joint of the leg that allows for movement between the femur and tibia and is protected by the patella; the central area of the leg between the thigh and the lower leg. 

Most of us have two, one on each leg. 

I don't think many appreciate the knee until one day, it hurts. We rely on our feet, give shout outs and spend crazy dollars on our feet! 

PEDI, NIKE, BRUNO MAGLI

It's the knee that takes abuse. 

When we go to the doctor and he tests are "reflexes," what is it he taps?

THE KNEE...

When we get nervous, who do we blame it on?

"I AM WEAK IN THE KNEES."

 Sudden impulses of anger come, who gets the blame again?

"I HAD A KNEE-JERK REACTION."

Here's one: If someone is vertically challenged, we might say he's

-- "KNEE-HIGH TO A GRASSHOPPER"  

(A grasshopper's knee is pretty short; so is a grasshopper actually, so why did the knee get thrown under the bus?--squish.) 

BUT, the BEE'S KNEES, is a good thing?

Really? You'd have to be an entomologist to really know that.  

My husband lives with injured and sore knees. His athletisism (years ago) put them to the test, thinking he could try a sport that he really wasn't meant to play, wrestling. It happened in practice, not even a real competition. 

He didn't consider the knee, the one that forced his foot out to make the connection to the soccer ball, the sport that he excelled at.

He didn't consider the knee when he kicked the field goal in his football game that put him in the record books for his high school or propelled him over the hurdles when he ran track. 

His knees weren't asked, and sports continued. He paddled canoes in the ocean for 15 years.  A part of the sport requires swimming and waiting for an escort boat to pick you up between changes, dogpaddling like a water polo player in undulating swells; the sidelines of canoe racing. 

Waiting for the canoe to switch out paddlers...

one jumps out, the other jumps in, canoe keeps going, one fell swoop! 

Sports now? "Let's walk the 18 holes...who needs a cart?" 

Once again, did he consider the multitude of flights of stairs he walked earlier in the day at his job?  

(Why does golf with your buddies make you forget stuff?)

Multiple surgeries, casts, x-rays, wraps and braces, ice packs, more surgeries, and setting off alarms at airports; "Hey Ted, is it time to be considerate?"  

One screamed at him, puffed up and shouted loud this week!  Ouch! A word that really under estimates true pain. After consoling and convincing,  I packed the guy up, shivering in the summer heat, and we headed for the E.R. at 11:00 at night. 

The last time we visited the E.R. together, his heart was hurting. Both of our hearts were hurting, but this particular stress received a physical diagnosis, "minor" heart attack. (The "major one" had already occurred a year earlier). 

I'm a "nurse" again, taking care of the wounded, the hurting, the surrendered...

Here's another:

"ON BENDED KNEE, I PRAY."

The knee is taking action, an action of humbleness, which starts from a signal from the heart. My thought?  This needs to be done a lot more in this hurting world. 

When the knee bends, God moves. 

Ephesians 3:14-19 For this reason I kneel before the Father,  from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,  may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,  and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

I like the part about "wide and long and high and deep;" sounds athletic, doesn't it?  Tomorrow, the Ortho appointment awaits. They'll stick a needle in and drain fluid, discuss his options and we'll consider...

 and I'll add some more strength exercises to my routine. 

Deep Knee Bends...

Ask me, an keep me accountable please for the work-out, for my knees wobble sometimes and that's where armpits come in--another under-appreciated body part; 

which reminds me, (I digress), 

I received a sting in the armpit by a bee the other day, I wonder if he had knees? 

Thought-Fully Yours, Coleene