My Father's House

On waking, was moving to house much too large –
All empty, no people, the floors shiny, hard;
Though here on the main floor of edifice great,
Aware far more stories there be to create –

Yet I was not in them, those rooms yet to see,
I stood on this floor, here and now’s what there be;
The rest is potential (forsaken through hell,
Which now passes from me as I become well).

“The house of My Father has mansions galore,
I go to prepare it so you can have more
Of place to explore, and to live where you be,
Right here, or much farther – exciting to see.

“If it were not so, I'd have said, would I not?
Be back – just you wait, and hold on to that thought”.
With that Jesus left them, Apostles, the first,
And mansions we find – some far better, some worse.

Each room has a culture that's here for a time;
Some last for a long spell, some young, such as mine –
I'm Creenglish, from culture that echoes between
Two much larger cultures, a mixture, it seems.

So house that we live in is vibrant with life,
As cultures flow onwards through calm or through strife;
A room with our name on it, comforting each,
Soon locks on our hearts, travels o'er land and sea –

For each it's a homeland, unique and replete
With echoes of days when we first world did meet;
A base it has formed, place to stand and set out
To see a big world, find what it's all about.

Our years do not last long as we sally forth,
Yet longer or shorter, each moment has worth;
If we're always living in rooms round the bend,
We find we are missing these gifts which You send.

Then business, or struggle, or venturesome heart,
Bids us up and move on, our room to depart;
It's sad to leave family and friends in this way,
But we keep in contact – much better today.

Christ said He'd prepare for us rooms where we'd be,
New places to live, quite amazing indeed.
And that He would come, lead us onward to there,
And be in our lives in such rooms now prepared.

Though true for all people, those words which he spoke,
Were to first Apostles as new day awoke;
For their job and training, from His point of view,
Would take them on journeys – some one, some a few.

The reasons for travel would vary through time,
But task for Apostles was one of a kind –
To take salt, light, leaven, of Jewish insight,
Which God had delivered – stripped down, for their flight –

Then as they went forward, to share such a thing,
That our other cultures might dance, laugh, and sing;
As dullness, or darkness, or flatness gave way
To life-giving Spirit, and the dawn of new day.

They did that, and do that – cross borders to us –
And often big trouble is there – quite a fuss;
And yet they've persisted, Christ's been there with them,
Determined to share lifely words to the end.

The world, it has changed here in this country fair
Great numbers of people and cultures are there;
No need for long journeys to meet folks at last –
We just cross the street and arrive there quite fast.

The room where each person lives now is quite small –
It's part of that person and moves with them all;
It's fluid – as children grow up with new mix,
Then their kids as well, as each world-view is fixed.

Regardless of culture we carry around,
Or tweaking that happens in us without sound –
We each are so blessed with that salt, leaven, light,
And find that our cultures now sparkle, feel right.

The danger, of course, as we meet one another,
Is saying, ‘drop culture – mine's better than other’
For when folks leave home-base and rootage inside,
Exposed they're to danger with no place to hide.

For salt, light, and leaven, aren't ‘home’ for the flock
But lighting, and spices, and fluff, agent brought;
These gifts to our cultures give meaning not waste,
So long as they speak to our cultural base.

That always was true when each culture had groups
But no less important today in this soup
Of cultures around us as we're all mixed up –
And base-culture outlook, we carry with us.

For me, new perspective is rising to view –
Horizon of time opens up now with you.
“For what have you courage, since cancer has passed,
Which you lacked before you were hit by that blast?”–

Those words echo in me at dawn of this day,
As I view the world in this freshening way;
This house with its floors now all shiny and bright –
Renewed like the other for venturesome life.

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