Life has loveliness to sell
When I was a teenager, I spent most of my waking hours at my best friend's house. His mother was a lover of great literature, and had mounted some of her favorite passages of poetry and prose around her house. These were not grand statement pieces hung over the mantle, but simple, unassuming affairs, mounted in the bathroom or next to a dresser or by the back door.
One of these was this poem by Sara Teasdale, titled "Barter." As a teenage boy, I had zero interest in flowery poetry, and even less interest in memorizing it. And yet, somehow, the words of this poem lodged themselves permanently in my mind. Over the years, they have floated back to me in random moments, without any effort on my part.
Barter, by Sara Teasdale
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Life has loveliness to sell,
All beautiful and splendid things,
Blue waves whitened on a cliff,
Soaring fire that sways and sings,
And children's faces looking up
Holding wonder like a cup. -
Life has loveliness to sell,
Music like a curve of gold,
Scent of pine trees in the rain,
Eyes that love you, arms that hold,
And for your spirit's still delight,
Holy thoughts that star the night. -
Spend all you have for loveliness,
Buy it and never count the cost;
For one white singing hour of peace
Count many a year of strife well lost,
And for a breath of ecstasy
Give all you have been, or could be.
Holding wonder like a cup
Since then, I have often marvelled at the mind's ability to absorb the things it is surrounded by: advertising jingles, lyrics from obscure songs, messages from the backs of cereal boxes. This propensity is especially pronounced with children, who learn new things seemingly by osmosis.
This passage from Thessalonians was also mounted on my friend's wall. Even though I grew up going to church, my first exposure to it was in my friend's home. It is such a powerful declaration about our identity as God's children, and I am grateful to have unwittingly memorized it in my friend's home. What a gift his mother gave me by hanging it on her walls!
Holy thoughts that star the night
As we've raised our children, we've tried our best to expose them to the word of God. But outside of scripture study, it's not obvious how to do this. If we wanted to hang a particular verse on our walls, we had to cross our fingers that someone out there had produced that exact passage in a mountable format, or resign ourselves to printing it out and taping it up—not the most elegant or durable solution.
ScriptureFix is our attempt to address this, making it as easy as possible to find your favorite verses of scripture and mount them on your walls. With over 1000 passages, ScriptureFix is the largest catalog of scriptural wall art. And if you can't find what you're looking for, please request it! We're adding more all the time.
Our mission is to make it as easy as possible to get the word of the Lord onto the walls of your home.
Put the word of God where it matters most
The Sharp Family
Phil & Melanie Sharp live in Colorado with their five children. Phil studied engineering and worked in the tech industry for many years. Melanie studied Sociology and worked in non-profit, and has been at home with our children for the past decade. She is now pursuing a graduate degree in mental health counseling. They started their family in Silicon Valley, lived in London for a few years, and have settled in Colorado.
