September 4, 1999

Never a Cry

it is so very difficult to write these words

to a friend who’ll never read them

       likely

with songs of glory wondrous in my ear

to write such words of sadness

seems wrong

as though glory had nothing to do with pain

and the ending of a life scarce begun

forgetting that He came for such as you

as well as the one you lost, unknown

with never a cry but to the Lord

who also waits for yours

Several of us were singing & enjoying each other’s

company in the “Leader’s Cottage” earlier today.

Found out later that one of the people there that

afternoon had had an abortion earlier that year.

The death of an innocent child is hard to reconcile

so soon after we were all singing hymns together.

The mercy of our almighty God is hard to reconcile

with the reality that we are, at our best, sinners.

Yet despair and mercy are not strangers

and where they meet God has glory.