Awake, my soul.

I found my soul…
deep in slumber in a cold, dark place.
Surrounded by a slick black shell
encasing it from the beginning.
There it lay, far from the warming
light of the Sun,
content to shiver and sleep.

Until one day
I watched as warm rays
penetrated the darkness,
and water poured from Heaven
mixed with oil.
First softening,
then cracking,
then washing away the coffin walls,
and freeing a tender shoot
to wend heaven-wards in its search
for warmth and light.

I saw its weak and stooping back,
time and time again
--buffeted by winds,
swarmed by gnats,
nearly trampled underfoot,
choked by weeds--
droop from lack of sustenance,
and fall to the earth.

Each time,
I saw the gardener,
hands scarred by a life-giving tree,
clear the brambles,
water its withering roots from His veins,
and lift the arms of my soul anew.
So that it could reach again for heaven,
head bowed in gratitude.

I found my soul at last,
its face warmed and radiant,
unfurling petals of purest gold,
revealing in its upturned face,
the unmistakable likeness
of the Sun.


Sunflower image in the public domain.

"It is not he who begins well who is perfect. It is he who ends well who is approved in God's sight." - St. Basil the Great.

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." - Genesis 1:27

"But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." - 1 John 1:7

"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." - Hebrews 12:1-2

"By your endurance you will gain your lives." - Luke 21:19

"The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light." - Romans 13:12