Tag: Poetry

For God so loved the world He gave His one and only Son
But we didn’t understand such sacrificial love
And chose instead to live in fear and animosity
Like children who cower needless in the dark,
Watching shadows grow, stretching into teeth and claws,
Trembling as the house shifts with old-man groans, unheard in the day
But who’s moans echo reverberating through the night.
Though danger is far, our hearts hammer like soldiers marching.

But He did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world.
Though our sin clung to us like a veil of mist and fog
It obscured our view, eclipsing everything in white.
It cushioned, blocking all surrounding noise, deadening the sound.
Locked in a silent prison, unsure who was friend or foe.
We determined what we couldn’t see or understand was our enemy.
While Christ died in surrender we chose to take up arms.
And in a battlefield we couldn’t see, we met with our destruction.

But whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
And as the soil begins to separate and crack when the water dries out,
Jesus came to bring life like droplets raining softly on parched, broken ground.
And where notes only clanged together in bone-jarring dissonance,
As grand composer he will orchestrate us into spine-tingling harmony.
He won’t silence sharps in favour of flats or ignore the treble to hear the base
But all will unite in gratitude and resounding joy because
He came that the world would be saved through Him.

I sense our dream for a renewed nation is slowly fading.
Like a rowboat sucked out to sea by the current,
Land shrinks into the growing sea, lost in the distance.
As night envelopes, I strain to see Israel’s last glimpses of rescue.

But despite the deepening darkness, I choose to have confidence.
I know, despite what I do not see, you keep your word
You have promised a Messiah, you have promised restoration.
These words are my sliver of light from shore that keeps me rowing.

Israel tripped too many times. Our opponents gained the upper hand.
Each blow knocked us down until our strength was gone.
Too weak to stand, for many, it was easier to lay down for the count.
But for a few, we continue to stand back up without fear.

The righteous stumble forward without light, along broken and overgrown trails.
Guided by ancient directions of silenced prophets. When suddenly,
From out of the heavy darkness a rooster calls, like a voice crying out in the desert,
Awakening the silent, slumbering world, announcing the return of the sun.

There, stands the maestro, unveiled as the curtain slowly lifts.
John is the conductor’s baton. Slowly, it rises, signalling so everyone is ready,
Then the watching audience will know, God’s covenant concerto is about to begin,
And His 400 year silence will be broken with a deafening boom.

Like a cart following the grooves dug into the hardened ground,
I know my roll. I can see my life laid out before me, but then an angel
Lifts me far from my track, drops me in a desert of ever-shifting ground.
Like sand swept up, my future becomes blurred and indistinct.

In the darkness of my confusion and fear I have hope
Hope that you are a God of love, hope that you have a plan.
And despite those ruthlessly pursuing us,
I have hope you will provide an escape.

Now the leprous are cleansed, the blind can see
And the dead breathe again.
They call my son teacher, rabbi, the Messiah
But why does he predict his death?

Did I raise him just to watch him die?
Did I teach him his first words
So he could ignite a nation
But stay silent before his accusers?

Did I watch him take his first steps
So he could stumble while he carried a cross?
Did our family sit together eating Passover year after year
So he would one day offer his blood as the lamb’s sacrifice?

But even in blackest night I will have hope.
Hope that looks to the future in anticipation.
And while my son lays dead, my hope
Is that this is just the caesura in your plan.

That moment when the choir jolts to a stop in unified silence
When you can hear the static nothing of blood pulsing through your ears
And while a few accept the end and begin to clap, I hold still
Because I know this cannot possibly be the conclusion.

And then I see the chests rise in breath and mouths begin to open.
In that moment I know the silence is about to be obliterated in music
Because your best is still yet to come and as every knee begins to bow
The world will reverberate with your unconditional, sacrificial love.