Trailing fingerprints,
Decopage boxes,
Dotting hillside cliffs.
Trees straining for clouds,
Legs dangling,
Mulling over questions.

Where was I
In the beginning?

An intentional design,
Sitting, legs crossed,
In the heavens.

The mountain slopes,
Leaning from the sea,
Rippling V formations,
Souls watching
The crippling depths,
Seeing only peace,
Imagining themselves
A set of wings.

I only remember—
Those who hope
In the Lord
Will soar on wings
Like eagles.

My back against a cold wall,
Thoughts running circles,
Finding the cocoon
Of golden, warm yellows,
A slowing of time
Within a hazy picture—
Breathing out in Your arms,
Eternally enveloped,
Watching the world
Waste away,
As I seek Your comfort.

It hurts my mind
To slow.
My legs creak
And whine
As I move to sit.
Broiled pain
Lidded by activity—
I could smile
And smile, only my
Need calls
And sits me down
With gentle
Hands: Love, stop
And pray.

The transition of train tracks,
Another hitch in my breath
As the thoughts speed by—

The context blurs with color,
Fields of cattle and flowers,
I try to lower the blinds—

The black coal burns hotter,
Steam of fear filling my eyes,
My Savior boards my mind—

The pressure softens & slows,
Beauty righting itself outside,
Internally I am peaceful—

A quiet truth settles over the
Train car as the sun escapes
From its glaring pride—

He is a better conductor
Than I

Together but separate—
A tide lapping the shoreline,
A bundle of strangers on a bus,
The screaming voices of a crowd,
Loved ones over a distance,
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
One body,
Creation uniquely molded
For the roles
Modeled by the Trinity.

Before Jesus,
The years were a panel
Of greys,
A paint sample of dreary,
Passing by
With a lack of purpose.
Before Jesus,
My heart palpitated in Me,
Nothingness,
Caught on the fishing hook
Of anxiety
Cast by internal thoughts.
Before Jesus,
Strength was a weakness,
Vulnerability
Reeked of failing trajectory,
Stone-cold,
Unapproachable in self-pity.
Before Jesus,
I waited in secret darkness,
Only yearning
For the limitless grace of God,
Unknowing,
Tangled in lie after wordly lie.
Before Jesus,
I smiled blankly in polaroids,
Unrecognizable,
Fire dormant in my tired eyes,
A lost lamb,
Before the day of transformation,
Immortalized
In the love that will never change.

In Jesus,
Darkness gives way to light.

A whisper in the leaves,
A plea on lips
Caught in a transitory
Moment.
“Make me more like You.”
Lord, make me Love.
Make me Joy, Peace.
Make me Compassion
And Grace.
All that You are—
All You made me to be,
Make me.