Take up your bed and walk

" Do you want to be made well?....Stand up, take up your bed and walk." John 5:6,8

A Poem for Healing


In the still of the night I cry to you and ask you
to mend these bones, mend my heart and give me
peace in the daylight.

I want nothing more than to pick up my bed
and to walk in the light of day, with the whole world watching.

I want to break all the temple rules
and announce in public what is whispered in secret,
so transparent your love, and so obvious my healing.

I want to be free of the pain that holds me here
on these wretched sweat stained sheets,
the world passing by and me unnoticed, unwanted, and set aside.

You have been my Savior when I didn't know you,
you sought me out on the dark steps and bent low to speak,
you held my hand and spoke to me like a friend.

I wait for you, whispering my deepest need, you already know,
these same needs the world scorns and ignore their broken hearts,
but I am unafraid to ask, fearless before my own shattered being.

Today, Loving God, I give you my all, broken and yet looking up
battered and yet not alone, for you are always willing to be near.
Today, help me bear the pain of mending, love which breaks open
to make all things new.