Tags

, , , , , , , ,

This poem is inspired by Song of Solomon 2:10-13.

In the Garden
I blink and find I am
in a long and darkened hall
The door I thought had opened
for me was not mine at all
"God doesn't close but what He opens"
others call as they brush by
They mean to offer comfort
but all I want to do is cry
I don't understand all the locked doors
or why You leave me so bereft
Your presence is always with me
but You don't say why I'm left
alone in this darkened hall
with windows and doors locked up tight
I have to grope as I make my way
searching for a glimmer of light

Finally at the end of the hall
a door opens the merest crack
I ought to rush but I'm hesitant
but there is no going back
I look through the door opened for me
unsure just what to expect
Never I could I have guessed
this barren and dry aspect
of wilderness waiting for me
once I step through the open door
Would be the thing You want for me
I think I'm too heart sore
to walk the wilderness again
though I do long to obey
Your voice-I hear you call to me
"Rise up, my love, and come away"

Step by step I wander through
this dry and thirsty land
There are no colors to assuage my eyes
as I struggle through the sand
For a time there is relentless heat
but then I swear I feel a breeze
I blink my dry and reddened eyes
and see that there are trees
I hear birdsong come from them
there is cool green grass below
now everywhere I turn my gaze
bushes and flowers grow

I don't know when it happened
that hot and barren wilderness
had utterly transformed 
into a garden of such lusciousness
the likes of which I never dreamed
nor caught the merest glimmer of
until I had obeyed all You said
and trusted in Your love