death” before "birth"

 

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Oh Lord of Life and Master of this world,

where heaven touches Earth again, & stars

keep to their cycles/ places they’ve been hurled;

and others, smaller, like Venus & Mars

appear to wander aimless (to our view)

through skies at night (& day as well, though we

don’t often see them then for blue

curtains draw across the sky we see

and life is focussed daily on this Earth.

But just as much each day we live, since birth

we have the opportunity to see

this Earth in context of eternity!

A bigger world that stoops to hold our home

and knows more grief* than we could dream exists

and still gives out and still provides, and cares

and welcomes and gives space to joy and peace.

And sings a deeper song with pleasures strong,

and focussed on relationships which seem

to eyes of fetal humans sometimes wrong,

because of twists and turns we did not dream

up, or we did dream up an awful lot 

of nightmares - well they came into our heads.

Oh God we give back to you what we’ve got

and thank you for the weeks and days instead

that have been gifted by creative love

to us, to give and not expect return.

And in this way join with life from above,

as songs of joy & peace and grief* we learn.

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*  “And God saw.. that it was … good/ very good” x 7 (Genesis 1: 4,10, 12,18, 21, 25, 31); “The LORD saw … And the LORD was sorry that he had made humans on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.”(Genesis 6:5-6 NRSVUE) 

"How blessed those who grieve. They will find comfort!." (Matt 5:4)

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