Saturday, April 25, 2009

The Rhythm and Rhyme of the Poem of My Life


Another chapter ends. How many, O Lord, how many meetings and partings must there be? I know You teach me through each one of them, but when will I find a settling place? Even home now, I know, is not my final resting place. I return, but it is not mine as it was before. On this Earth, I truly belong not any where. Truly this is so. As Michael Card sings (and, yes, this is a Michael Card post - I'll explain later)...

...We travel this dark world that has but one light,
for we have here no lasting town.

And sometimes we run by the power of His might,
On our own at the best we can plod.
What we hopefully look for is just beyond sight:
We are pilgrims to the City of God.

I know that throughout my journeying, my life is in God's hands and is a joyful beautiful thing, a precious incomparable gift from Him. So though I go on to sing a new verse, the same song continues, for....

Life is a song we must sing with our days
A poem with meaning more than words can say
A painting with colors no rainbow can tell
A lyric that rhymes either heaven or hell
We are living letters that doubt desecrates
We're the notes of the song of the chorus of faith
God shapes every second of our little lives
And minds every minute as the universe waits by

CHORUS:
The pain and the longing
The joy and the moments of light
Are the rhythm and rhyme
The free verse of the poem of life

So look in the mirror and pray for the grace
To tear off the mask, see the art of your face
Open your ear lids to hear the sweet song
Of each moment that passes and pray to prolong
Your time in the ball of the dance of your days
Your canvas of colors of moments ablaze
With all that is holy
With the joy and the strife
With the rhythm and rhyme of the poem of your life
With the rhythm and rhyme of the poem of your life
watch here

The song of my life is "through-composed" with new music for every verse, though I'm amazed at how much every new verse refers to previous material. Yet it is all the same song, a song with an unknown ending; unknown, that is, to me. But it is a life marked by Christ, grounded in Holy Baptism and sustained by Christ's own Body and Blood. Need I know the end? No. I'm not directing the music. And why should I wish to extend the verse beyond what the composer intended? I've enjoyed the melody, I've danced to the tune. Now the tone changes and I with it.

It is well with my soul this night. As well as it shall ever be. For I am in Christ and Christ is in me. If I have died with Him, I shall also live with Him. And so I have, for so He has said when He put His Name upon me.

4 comments:

elizabeth said...

Christ is Risen!

I will miss you.

God keep you always...

Pine Cone Boy said...

I MISS YOU ALWEADY, NOVA! *cries*

sarahlaughed said...

Elizabeth: He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia! And you also. :D

PCB: This too shall pass. ;)

How do you always manage to make me slightly uncomfortable? :P

Pine Cone Boy said...

It's part of my telos. :D