Cuts To Grace
This has been a season of Lament. I wrote what follows as a lament. It is not perfect, but it is what I have been processing through over the last couple of months. I see hope and beauty in the dark times even as I mourn for the losses we have all suffered. I am angry at the choas in our world, yet I know my God is a God who redeems. He will win and in his victory all that has been lost will be made new. All that has gone wrong will be made right. I know this is true, because I know what he has done for me. I look at my scars and I see the how deep the beauty cuts.
“For if he causes grief, then He will have compassion according to His abundant lovingkindness.” -Lamentations 3:32-33 (I do not believe God has caused Covid-19 nor the death of George Floyd, but I do know he will have compassion on us.)
I reap what I sow
So I plant seeds of love and kindness
But the seeds could not grow as expected
Instead in my four walls I’ve sheltered
My classroom is empty
Zoom calls are ignored
I’m still teaching, but is anyone listening
Who is to blame? My students cry out for their loss
Gone is time with friends
Gone are my sports season
Gone are the Graduations
Gone are the vacations
Gone are the high fives
Gone are the warm hugs
Gone are meals out
Gone our the jobs
Gone are Goodbyes
Gone are new hellos
Gone is our breath
Gone, gone, gone
Our world is masked for protection
But masked we fight on line and in line
Disconnected and discontent.
Full of grief we weep.
Yet, I know I’m not forgotten
God has remained by my side
My God turns gravestones to gardens
My scars declare beauty
Ashes to beauty, cuts to grace
His love is in the laughter
Beauty behind the blue sky
Beauty is always left, in nature, sunshine,
Freedom, in yourself; and in God’s love for you.
I can think of all the beauty around me
It makes me happy
And I know the best is yet to come.
Hope in beauty, not that of the sunrise or sunset
But of the love God grants me when all good seems gone.
Because grace is not gone
I cannot do enough good to sow a perfect world
Brokenness remains, but there is beauty in the healed scars.
I can still love kindness and walk with my God.
Adventure With Brendan 