Universe
Creature
O Lord, You held me
cupped in Your hands, cradled
in Your arms. You made
me to tenderly lie against
Your bosom. You formed me and
shaped me until I was as
close to Your image and likeness
as a human creature could
become, and then You
looked into my face and
breathed my name, and like a
tiny mustard seed in
the womb You placed me –
into the innocent,
lush garden of an in utero,
warm enclave.*
But for the Mercy of God
Matthew 7:1-3
(“And with the Measure You Use, It Will
Be Measured to You”)
As if by a lightning flash
across the sky, I am illuminated in
all my nakedness! As if by a
sword, I am eviscerated
and ripped asunder, my quarters
tossed to wild dogs fighting
neath this table of raging thunder!
I am to be measured by
how I measure?! I am to
be judged by how I judge?!
All is hopelessly lost!
My cup once full is now
carelessly spilled, the
oil for anointing wasted, and
all the finest, aromatic
perfumes egregiously misused.
It is too late to unbury all
the bodies I buried. It is too late
to do anything to assuage
the hurt. The battleground lies
scorched under a blazing-
hot sky, and all I can see
are reapers picking at bones
littered ‘cross this field of
hard-bitten, unforgiving desert,
where banshees screech
that my heart lacked the human
compassion of eyes, and
wolves and ravens now jostle for
any entrails remaining.
On Being Incarnate
And so from His poor birth
in a Bethlehem stable, He would come
to walk from dusty village to
village, or to be transported in rough
fishermen’s boats from one
bleak shore to the next, teaching
always about the messianic advent of
the Kingdom of God, all at the
same while His Father
was blowing galaxies and
trillions of stars from His almighty
palm to the far corners of an
incomprehensible cosmos, where
Jesus’ earthly redemptive act
could possibly also there apply – like
when the loaves and fishes
He amazingly multiplied, and
His salvation extended to
forms and natures of Creation
yet to be identified…
Light
Awe
Lord, there is no
darkness too dark for Your Light.
There is no noise too loud
for Your Silence. There
is only You, and before You
I stand mute.
The Truth
The Light came out of
the darkness, and still comes out.
The darkness could not
restrain the Light, and still cannot.
The Light shone and still
shines, while the darkness
cowers, by the Light made blind.
Light and Hope
Where there is darkness,
there has to be Light, to see it…
Where there is despair,
there has to be Hope, to free it…
YHWH
Dear Lord God, eternal Father,
Creator of Heaven and earth, thank You for
the refuge of Your sheltering wings,
wings I, as your creature, can never describe, yet via a
smoky metaphor’s mirror they serve to soothe
my trembling. . .And thus towards them I crawl, O Lord,
to lie curled and fetal and protected beneath!
Whether in reality or dream, they are
what stands as my shield between me and the evil
of the serpent’s sting. Invisible as they be,
I sense their feathers outnumber the stars with the
scope and comfort of the shade and shadow of
their canopy. Such a haven You provide,
O Almighty “I AM,” faithful in Your protection and
promises, of which Your Heavenly hosts attest and sing!
Your wings I imagine radiate outward along
compass headings of Your Creation’s six days of work,
their azimuths streaking without beginning nor
ending, just the Truth of Your Writ and Word.
And I feel, Lord, that each radial line
is like a distinct Jacob’s Ladder, with
their center-point the beloved River Jordan, that
baptismal cup pouring forth the four letters
of Your Name’s grace and glory.