difficulties and curses*..

---

Oh Lord! The one who BE's BEFORE all things.

The one who BE's just NOW. And who WILL BE.

When all this Universe has taken wings,

or more its time's over, then we'll see

[If truly you have given us your life,

your nature, and your immortality]

that your life is the life of ages, rife

with your creative love, so full & free,

and also your amazing penchant for

redemption of .. where love has been invoked,

responded to and opened up for more.

This opens things up more than we had hoped

for. Some things might be lost, and then forgot-

-ten times, offenses might be overlooked,

for they've been covered over, so they're not

again recalled, remembered, to be hooked

and fished up, once again to influence

relationships and how things go from here.

I don't know how you do it, but the sense

I get is that it's not just the appear-

-ance of things (though you don't mind that at all).

You're cognisant - of likenesses & such,

of images - on back of retina, small.

You know where they would play a part, for much

more helpfulness, to make the whole shebang

be mirroring your ecosystem ways

of metaphors to aid, for hooks to hang

our understanding on, for good displays

the intertwining wres-tle-ing of love,

the way that more good comes of letting the..

..the other side have right to push & shove,

but able too, to choose to wait & see.

And then the colour of our hearts comes out:

Will we be for the grace, mercy, & love

that tries to build more up, to give more clout

to them, than to a self that likes to shove.

For you, I see - my God, my Lord, my King -

shall only breathe and speak of letting things,

and blessing to enable more to sing.

So even when you utter words that sting,

and bring a curse* into the world, your word

will well describe the situation now

that fetal gods have thus been undeterred,

and brought a horror to our world somehow.

God's "curses" are a gift to help us see

a mark of degradation that has come,

that must be overcome again if we

would walk with God to the beat of his drum.

---

*  Genesis 3:11‭-‬19 NIVUK "And he said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.’ Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The snake deceived me, and I ate.’ 

So the Lord God said to the snake, 

‘Because you have done this, 

‘Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! 

You will crawl on your belly and 

you will eat dust all the days of your life. 

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, 

and between your offspring and hers; 

he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.’ 

To the woman he said, ‘I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labour you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.’ 

To Adam he said, ‘Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, “You must not eat from it,” 

‘Cursed is the ground because of you; 

through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. 

It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 

By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; 

for dust you are and to dust you will return.’" 

Genesis 4:9‭-‬12 NIVUK "Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is your brother Abel?’ ‘I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ The Lord said, 

‘What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. 

Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, 

which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 

When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. 

You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.’"

---