‘How would you like to be loved?’ God says.
God is all that and more.
God is not one to punish if you don’t believe,
if you don’t choose faith.
Sometimes trust is a step too far
and belief a jump across an abyss.
But God is the come who comes
gently in the night to tap at our windows
and say, ‘whoever you think I could never be
for you, I am.’
For each reason we might reject God,
for each failing we presume upon her,
God takes our hands in his
and in his grace absolves us
of our misunderstandings, our weaknesses –
that some call sin,
and others call the state of being human,
these very reasons we’re in need.
These very reasons we lie awake
awaiting a tap upon our windowpane,
that speaks of love that doesn’t need belief
to exist,
or permission to seek entrance.
But still asks with utmost courtesy
and endless patience,
awaiting the opening of our hearts.
Not so much to save us from death as a people lost,
as much as to indwell us,
infuse us with life
as a people found,
sought out by the lover of their souls.
And until we can give him the names
to answer all our longings –
or her another shape and voice,
that makes sense, that affirms –
then God will show us in the waiting
of a loving that persists,
that will not stop placing its faith in us
restless on our beds –
though we may feel hardly worthy,
might question love and all its adequacy
to counter our disbelief,
to match our endless need.
Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
Living Tree Poetry 