His Hands

"A good father will leave his imprint on his daughter

 for the rest of her life."

James C. Dobson

  His Hands

By Elece Hollis

As we harvested the grapes for jelly-making

I took photos of his hands;

I wanted never to forget those hands,

How they looked in my mind's eye.

The photos shocked me—rocked me

Never would I have thought those hands

Had already become strange, drifted

My daddy's hands—into the shallows of my memory.

I think I only imagined I knew 

What his hands looked like—those hands.

What is it I do remember? 

It's how those hands felt holding mine.

When I was small and frightened, those hands

Caught me, lead me, nurtured me.

Those are comforting memories,

Which cannot be captured in a photograph.

Fix your thoughts on what is true and good and right.

 Think about things that are pure and lovely, and dwell 

on the fine good things in others.

Philippians 4:8 TLB

Helen Steiner Rice wrote many poems about the love of family. 

In this book her beloved poems are paired with devotional thoughts written by Elece Hollis.

Click here to find this book of devotions by Elece.

The Princess

The Princess

By Elece Hollis

Full of grace and light

She reigns amid the green

 Spring's princess

Men Look for God

Windowsill Bouquets

Children in a family are like flowers in a bouquet.

Marcelene Cox

Windowsill Bouquets

By Elece Hollis

Spring comes inside

To the windowsill

In installments

Pinks and Purples,

Whites and yellows,

Reds and oranges,

Bright blooms.

Eager grandchildren come

Bringing these

Clasped in sweet fists

Behind their backs.

For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. 

The flowers appear on the earth. 

Song of Solomon 2:11-12

                   

               Find a copy of Elece's book today. Click here.

Left Behind

"Every moment of this strange and lovely life from dawn to dusk is a miracle. 

Somewhere, always, a rose is opening its petals to the dawn. 

Somewhere, always, a flower is fading in the dusk." 

 Beverly Nichols

Left Behind

by Elece Hollis

I love to find the spaces where the flowers bloom and grow,

Places where once frame houses stood ... abandoned long ago.

I love to see the trees strong standing like sentinels on the land;

To think of the generations these farms and orchards spanned.

I love to think in years gone by—sweet on a springtime day,

Long before the family changed and faded soft away,

A housewife knelt with flower bulbs, a garden trowel in her hand,

Turned back the dirt and snugged each bulb like a promise to the land.

She watched them sprout each springtime—watched them bloom in time;

She knew they'd make the heart glad ... like God's poetry and rhyme.

Pink hyacinths, dancing iris, bright sunny daffodils,

Come suddenly through the brown loam of winter's dreary chills.

Through many years of happiness, perhaps a few of woe,

Those flowers sprout back up again when soft spring breezes blow.

They push up through life's seasons. They speak of days gone by,

Of births, of deaths, marriages, moves—changes the blossoms belie.

One day the house stood empty, one day the roof would fall,

But those flowers would come for decades—legacies outlasting all.

When houses and barns decay and fall, and fences totter and lean

The soil reclaims its expanses, but time winks his eye at these.

A good man leaves an inheritance for his Children's children...

Proverbs 13:22

Helen Steiner Rice poetry with devotions by Elece Hollis

Click here to find a copy of this book

Praise

We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade,
 the presence of God.
 The world is crowded with him. He walks everywhere incognito.

C.S. Lewis

You shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace:

 the mountains and the hills will break forth

 before you into singing,

 and all the trees of the field will clap—will clap their hands.

 Isaiah 55:12

Praise

by Elece Hollis

 If I could sing like a violet, offer incense like a rose, 

Dance before God in the wind like a daffodil,
Bless God like a hyacinth does,

If I could praise.

If I could whisper prayers like the dandelions

 Trust my seeds to His wind, if I could worship

So well as these in the spring grasses,

If I could praise.

If I could twirl like a tulip

Bow like a pearl peony, follow his light like a sunflower,

Sing like a blossoming tree to my creator

If I could praise.

I would find my heart content.

©2014 Elece Hollis , author of Meet God in the Morning, Poems from the Heart of Prayer,

 a devotional book with poems by Helen Steiner Rice. Find this book.

Out of Darkness

Joy is to behold God in everything.

Julian of Norwich

Out of Darkness

 By Elece Hollis

Out of the brown and sodden earth springs spring 

To surprise us again

Though we knew she was coming

 We knew and we waited and we thought ourselves

Watching!

 Spring came one morning—sprouted up

Surprised us yet again

With purple crocus and yellow daffodils dancing

How from brown come such joyful colors—yet they come

 Laughing!

 God created Adam from the dirt—now from the soil

Surprises us again

He mixes dirt with sunlight and rain 

 To wake our hearts and souls from winter's drear and set us

Singing!

Read Elece's devotional book for Springtime inspiration.

 Click on the sentence above to find a copy to buy.

Winter Songs

And the night shall be filled with music,

And the cares that infest the day, 

Shall fold their tents like the Arabs,

 And as silently steal away.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Winter Songs

When winter days are cold and drear,

Listen to me, Friend so dear,

Listen well and you will hear

The winter's sweet sweet music.

Winter's cold sings spring's bright tale

A song of the sun and thawing dale

Which comes as promised—without fail

Now can't you hear that music?

Winter's hymn is of summer bright

When heat clings even into the night

And children run and fly a kite,

These tunes are in winter's music.

Winter's chorus sings autumn days

When fireflies flit and bonfires blaze

And crimson leaves a'falling raise

The melody of winter's music.

Winter's ballad is in the wind's cry

Lifting and falling as days pass by,

Afternoon shadows—the night's lullaby

Notes of the year's fairest music.

©Elece Hollis 2015

This book of poems by Helen Steiner Rice includes devotionals written by Elece Hollis.
Try this source for a copy of Elece's book.

In the Winter of the Soul

"He who lives in hope dances without a fiddle."

Unknown

In the winter of the soul

Reach from your cold room toward a window

Reach toward a cracked door

Reach forward, reach outside that room

To a warm and sun-filled place beyond yourself

In the winter of the soul

Reach—pull—climb out of the dark places

Stretch to the light—to help—to hope

Look out, look up to the source of all comfort,

And love will shine in on you, and you will grow.

We might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast...

(From Hebrews 6:18-19  KJV)