Witnessing
Welcome blessed child
May you taste world’s endless gifts—
Vision awakens

Trusting
Eyes find breath of peace
Embracing each precious day—
Experience counts

Growing
Remembering youth
Innocent times of learning—
Treasures of friendship

Welcome blessed child
May you taste world’s endless gifts—
Vision awakens

Eyes find breath of peace
Embracing each precious day—
Experience counts

Remembering youth
Innocent times of learning—
Treasures of friendship

Father
Witnessing transformations
Smallest of steps
Raising faith’s enduring foundation
Rejoicing

Precious
Harvest gathered
Filled with destiny
From smallest of seeds
Possibilities

Daily
Hope embraced
From Savior’s light
Smallest voice sharing grace
Beginnings

This series of poems (written in the German-inspired style of Elfchen or Elevenie) shares a total of eleven words in each poem, with a sequence by line of one, two, three, four, and one words.
Messiah’s
Infant face
Witnessing Father’s love
Kingdom shall never end
Majesty

Mother’s
Ultimate favor
Bearing Father’s Son
Love filled with Spirit
Destiny

Savior’s
Humble Beginnings
Stable’s common feedbox
Angels praise Father’s joy
Light


Feel the dignity of a child. Do not feel superior to him for you are not.
Those who cannot begin do not finish.
Robert Henri (1865-1929) was an American painter and teacher. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, he studied in Paris where he strongly identified with the impressionists, as he pursued a more progressive approach with his paintings.

Start a new habit on today’s events: Think first of the eternal difference your choices will make.
From Proverbs 16:3: “Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.“
David Jeremiah (born 1941) is an American pastor and Christian author.

To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.
If you have the courage to begin, you have the courage to succeed.
David Viscott (1938-1996) was an American psychiatrist and author.

For outlandish creatures like us, on our way to a heart, a brain, and courage, Bethlehem is not the end of our journey but only the beginning–not home but the place through which we must pass if ever we are to reach home at last.
From Luke 2:13-14: “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!'”
Frederick Buechner (1926-2022) was an American pastor, Christian theologian, and author. His writings were published in 39 books, which included several different genres.
Warmest beginnings
Sunrise’s gift of welcome—
Youthful innocence

Horizon’s shadows
Sunset offers gratitude—
Joyful innocence

Landscape now resting
Under serenity’s quilt—
Nightly innocence

Sun’s morning greeting
Welcome to this blessed day—
Time to start moving

Taking one more step
Focus on brighter moments—
Light’s encouragement

Another question
Sowing seeds for tomorrow—
Answers to be found

From Psalm 51:10-12: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.”

Just as farmers plant
Placing faithful trust
God’s mercy shall grant
From earth’s blessed crust
Mankind’s wayward thoughts
Filling sinful acts
Tender grace be caught
Truthfulness unpacked
Steadfast Spirit stirs
Creating clean heart
Joyfulness unblurred
Fresh beginnings start
God’s love envisions
Taking in His peace
Hope’s assured vision
Life’s renewing lease
Old ways put away
Hanging from Lord’s cross
Bridge lighted each day
Faith brings us across

From Ephesians 4:21-24: “ For surely you have heard about Him and were taught in Him, as truth is in Jesus, to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”