First Day Beyond [Module #42] (Psalm 119:105; John 6:1-25)

First day beyond – or second is it now
That clock has turned its winding hands
Past midnight –
Where the shift takes place,
When most of us, asleep,
Don’t notice that things move and shift
As earth goes ’round once more
On its persistent spin.

But then again –
It’s only half a day –
Or double-day as I now count their turns –
That’s passed since I
Stepped out into this different world –

A world I know,
But one you’ve never known –
Not here at least –
Though mom, and others ’course have known.

But here I am –
So much the same – and yet so different
At its base –

The paint upon that room
You always liked –
“So bright and cheery”
Was your view –

New cupboards here –
And with them
New arrangements for their use –

The chipper-man,
Quick rendered down my heap of brush
To mounting pile of mulch –

And book that Ellice wrote
For kids – and soon we’ll print –
How you loved books –
Yet even more,
Showed interest
In the things we got into –
And thus affirmed our worlds –
Though different from your walk.

So strange this is
Oh father –
I’d not expected this –
Or thought that some day
I would ever stop and think like this –

Recall those pleasant times,
And walk together once again
Those pleasant days
And hours of talk with you
As we grew up.

So thank you, dad,
For all you’ve given to me;
But most of all,
Permission to be me,
As you, yourself,
Found freedom in His Word,
To step out into life,
Your road lit up by
Lanterns left behind
By those who’d gone before –
“A light”, indeed, “unto my path”.

Thanks Lord, for this.

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