This one is hot off the press! News has not been good in recent days. There have been various changes, griefs and losses in our lives. Friends move away. Others have family with cancer. People in our State (of NSW) are beset by devastating fires. This poem takes up some of the mood and moves to concrete, Christian hope.
Colours Shaded Blue
If colours fill our lives
Then these days are shaded blue;
As fresh news comes upon us
We face this shadowed hue.
Change and loss and illness
Fill our spoken words and screens;
The unknowing makes us wonder
As we tremble at unseens.
Sometimes we have too much information,
At others, not enough;
But when those near us suffer
The going becomes rough.
It’s this sense of having no power
To change or help or fix
The situation there before us,
There are no short-cut tricks.
So, we travel as companions
And together share the load;
Like the broken figure on the cross
Who struggled a gravely road.
To truly understand each other’s
Heavy heart and throbbing head,
It helps us to remember
God shared in our living and our dead.
When we were misunderstood the other day,
Remember in Jesus’ preaching
And his crowd that walked away.
When others round us suffer
And we grieve who or what we’ve lost;
Jesus’ heart grieved his mate Lazarus
Yes, God does know the cost.
If we really believe in Jesus
Then we believe God lived our way,
And is with us as much tomorrow
As he is with us today.
But where, O where to find him?
Well look beside you here,
He’s in a friend’s embrace,
And in another’s face of cheer.
He’s in the person bringing flowers,
The one with casseroles at your door,
His spirit washes you in the shower,
And wants to show you more.
More of his peaceful presence
In a buddy sitting by your side,
Even when no word passes,
When in the car you ride.
Even in these days of troubles
When our feelings are coloured blue,
Our God is right there with us,
Because we see him in you.
SCJF 23102013.
Simon's still stanza 