Living Tree Poetry

Creation knows the secret
and sings.
Sings the notes we catch and hear
and register as our own
hope rising,
our blood
made of the same
liquid life
as the sap that runs
through each living tree.

Creation knows the secret
and groans.
Weeps tear we feel wet
upon our own cheeks,
our hearts beating,
and lungs filling
with the same
bated breath
nature holds
in suspense.

Waiting for that day of release.

And in the meanwhile we,
who know the secret
sing,
along with all creation.
What value the world
and its goods
without heaven
as the missing piece
to fill the soul
with itself.

Creation knows the secret
and sings.
The song,
though incomplete,
with missing
and discordant notes,
rings out day and night,
calling back the creator
to finish a work
once begun.

To complete
what creation knows
is the consummation
of a love
still promised,
all our unmet needs
and inarticulate longings
fulfilled,
in a blink of an eye,
of heaven meeting earth.

The sun of Christ
blowing apart
all the dark vestiges
that remain,
the divisions made
between creation
and humankind,
between sister and brother,
all restored
as new in Him.

Yes, creation knows the secret,
and sings.
Sings the notes
we catch and hear
and register as our own
anticipation
making claim
on the balance
of the gift, half given,
yet on its way.

Ana Lisa de Jong
July 2018

^‘We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.’
Romans 8:22-23