From Eden 'Til Now

"So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths."
(Genesis 3:6-7)

"Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever."
(1 John 2:15-17)

From Eden 'Til Now

Lord, I confess the same disease

That chose the wrong between two trees

"The lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes

And boastful pride of life" -- these lies

They tempt my heart from all Your good

T'ward all, instead, which drew Your blood

Upon the cross, that barren tree

Where You bore all our misery.

But since my sins have drawn it forth

Cleanse me in it; waste not its worth!

And since myself

They pierce, as well

There, for my good

Inject Your blood

'Til it replaces all my hell

With all of You, and makes me well.

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This began as a prayer of repentance,

Condescension

When the Sun condescends to the Earth, it's splendor

Makes the clouds overhead not curtains, but mirrors.

   And so it is with Jesus Christ and us. For condescend, in its technical sense, means "to come down to," or "to descend in order to be with," in which case it denotes not the negative connotation of haughtiness or insult, but the positive aspect of the humility by which someone higher stoops to the level of someone lower (as a parent will with their child, or a teacher with a student) -- which act is almost always for the purpose of raising up the lower. And when the eternal Son and Word of God "became flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1), he shared not only our human nature, but all of the dark clouds of suffering and struggle and temptation which go with it -- and thus transformed them all into manifold mirrors of His glory.

   But that transformation bears a little more explanation:

"Breath and Dust"

You cursed the ground, and with it us
For we are made of breath and dust
Forsaken by Your breath, we die
Who only by You were alive

So here: I bring all I can claim
This wretched pile of filth and shame
My worthy deeds are dirt and death
For such am I, without Your breath

I've done the last of all I can
And reached the end of all I am
And face now death, the boundary
And limit of totality

This limit You've already passed
As form, beauty that ever lasts
To farthest reaches, as a slave
And farther still, beyond the grave

You have desired and sought me
In the depths of my depravity
Brought back the fellowship I'd lost
To raise me up, at any cost

Restored Your image to our flesh
Your dust again filled with Your breath
In Whom we live, and move, and breathe
In Whose thrall only are we free

And with Your blood You ransomed us
Who had forsaken You for dust
On the cross made our rejection
Of You into our salvation

Then rose, to raise us up as well
Having destroyed the gates of hell
For in our furthest exile we
Cannot escape Your love's great reach

Your peace has conquered our violence
Sorrow is swallowed in Your bliss
And our most abysmal sins
Are drowned in Your love's great abyss!


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    This is, in my opinion, the best poem I have written to date. It is, at least, certainly my favorite, and so, since it also covers the central themes of the Faith in which I live and for the expounding of which I have started this blog, I thought it would be a fitting first post. More to come, as the Lord allows.