What do we find when we reach the end?
That there’s more beyond again.
So what might we find when we look within?
Vast starry constellations.
Clusters of galaxies to rival the mansions of the sky.
The wonder of the whole beyond us mirrored on the inside.
What do we feel when we scan the horizon,
awed and small in comparison?
So what might we feel if we considered ourselves
not witnesses at all
but made of the same dust, atoms and molecules
in which the stars are born?
What if the pattern of the universe
and the great map maker’s charts,
encompassed even us, within the glorious
extents of His realm?
What if life were a labyrinth?
A vast circling spiral.
That when we journey to the middle
we then find ourselves back on the outside.
Yes, just as the magnitude of creation
is not limited to our vision,
perhaps the magnitude of who we are
lies yet beyond our comprehension?
While stars live and burn with no-one to name
and observe them,
we all have centres at our hearts
beyond our explorations.
Yes, larger within than without,
the next time we stop to wonder,
may we wonder at ourselves
and the continents that lie undiscovered.
Might we stop too and wonder
at a creator just as mysterious
as the universe within and without us
at which we bow in reverence.
Ana Lisa de Jong
December 2017
Living Tree Poetry 