The Long View

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” John 17:20-26


The Long View

The rains pours down thunder lightening
water like falls over roof and steps
we are swollen with the liquid all our
porous places out of shape and groaning
the joints are stiff backs are breaking
and the skies cry with the weight of it all.

Justice has been done and the world seems safer
for this moment, this season but the horizon
swells with storms and anger swells in poor
and wealthy young hearts, bitterness plagues
the old, abused and frustrated, we are safe
for now from this pounding deluge
windows closed and shades drawn.

May God bless those who have no cover
yearning to hear of love and shelter
may arms reach out to hold the homeless
the powerless and the shunned across history
we forget them so easily and spend so freely
to crush our enemies.

Only are we safe when we roll off anger fear
and trust a Creator who is bigger than circumstances
larger than terror, surer than defense systems
more constant than the sun.

Hear the small voice in the storms whispering
the tears of children, sighs of mothers
love spent, love renewed what we hold we crush
what we let go we see again.