Sojourned.

I have sojourned to the house of darkness,

Been preserved by its ice.

I have known what it is to lie in the pool of death to the heart,

I have known a deeper pain than breaking,

A shattering,

An inability to ever be the same.

The knowing of tethered pieces torn away,

Like gazelle stripped by lion.

For I have sojourned to the house of darkness and known its pain.

Yet Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Behold the One who encamps around those who fear Him,

Behold the deliverer.

Behold the gentle King who drapes a cloak of glory over the shoulders of the shattered.

Behold, my shield of strength, goodness in the land of the living.

Behold the One who warms the ground from ice to pools of redemption.

The One who moves paralyzing fears of darkness to tender beckoning of baptismal anointing of love.

Behold, the gatherer of encouragement,

The threshold to peace.

Behold the Prince who causes streams of life to spring forth out of dry ravines.

Behold the One who sees the depravation of man within the fractured soil and sends rains of renewal.

Behold the One who breaks forth in marvelous light from the defeat of despair.

Behold the One who creates blooms from sufferings,

Creates sapphires from dust of nothingness,

Shining like sanctuary for the soul in need,

Behold the King of glory!

The One who draws us to listen and hear the still, small voice of love,

Who whispers in shadows, beckoning our hearts to behold, to gaze upon Glory itself.

In stillness, shall we feel the breath of the earth,

Awakening from its slumber of the night,

Inhaling such grace,

Exhaling calm winds rising like the sun.

I feel linked to the soil as of late,

Once sojourned to this house of darkness,

Now softening in the warmth of glory,

Preparing for the rising of the Son,

Now sojourned to the house of light.