{Offering a poem} ~ hope for consolation at the end of Great Lent

Back in the fall I gave my first poem, 

written year ago, here.

Lent is often

fraught with great struggle,
even to the point of 

heart-rending loss, anguish. 

There is not a day that goes by it seems 

that I do not have a story of struggle and pain

from dear friends in my email inbox,
even this past week,
I got news of both a mother and a brother's
unexpected deaths and the devastation of the families.

*

The poem I am offering today is one that I wrote

in the middle of a time I was in great struggle, 

I was in severe job loss/money shortage, my health

was poor (I think from the stress of that time), and I was 

told that my health problem was a 50/50 chance of cancer.

So, a hard time.

I've learned that
sometimes, in the hardest of times, 

God teaches you things that you could not otherwise learn.

*

Today I give you this poem,
that came from when I was in struggle,

as something I hope can offer strength of sorts at end of 

Great Lent 2015.

*

The Hands of God 

If I die before I wake,
I am in the hands of God
I have no fear
I am at peace
I love our Lord Jesus Christ our Faithful Saviour and High Priest.
To whom by His mercy, will and my desire,
I belong.
I am in the hands of God.
These hands are the strongest safest hands;
I am perfectly sound and well here.
God will and has hid me beneath His wings
The devil is defeated, Christ has destroyed death by death
and I long to meet my Saviour face to face.
I am in the hands of God
Who loves me and gave Himself for me.
I am part of God’s church, I am His daughter,
I am His wife; He is my bridegroom
And I await Him patiently and with praise.
I am in the hands of God
Hands so gentle, so tender,
That they will not break the bruised reed,
They will not snuff out the smoldering wick.
As Moses asked God for the forgiveness of the Israelites
And God forgave
So Christ promises to intercede for me
to ask God for my soul.
I am in the hands of God
Who does not chastise forever
Who is mercy clothed in light.*
I am in the hands of God
Hands stretched out on the Cross saving me
Uttering forgiveness for those who nailed His hands;
I am in the hands of God
Who is merciful and who remains with me
The brute beast.
I am in the hands of God and
trust He will put me in His mansion with many rooms
That He will take me into glory
That He is ever with me
I long ever to be where I am:
I am in the hands of God,
Who I love and who loves me
with an eternal love blazing out from all eternity
I love the God whose hands I am in.
I am in the hands of God.

~ Elizabeth (of roosje:little rose blog)

This poem was dedicated in 2010 to both my 
biological father and spiritual father in Ottawa.

*from a poem by Jane Kenyon

© roosje:{little rose} blog 2015

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