Dream Awakener

Christ is risen. Hallelujah!

It’s not always easy, Lord,
to live that statement.
Not always easy to believe,
when it’s preached by old men in dark suits,
with faces from which the joy
has long drained away.
Like color from a well-washed shirt.
Hardly remembered.

Not easy to believe,
living in a Good Friday world.
I can believe in the cross.
The headlines in the paper shout its truth. Everyday.
The suffering. The pain.
Christ mocked and crucified. Afresh.

I stand with Thomas.
Unless I see … Handle the evidence.
Find hard-edged proof.
Lord, open my eyes.

I catch a glimmer of the resurrection
like crocus pushing through snow,
purple on white. Still cold.
I see a gleam of life in the daffodil gold,
warmer round dark trees.

And suddenly I see the resurrection-splendor
in human courage.
In love.
In the painful, glad acceptance of uncertainty.
The joyous living of today
in the shadow of death.
In lives touched by your hand.
Transformed. Turned triumphantly
to face your light.
The stone rolled away. The tomb empty.
Life ahead, beginning now.

Lord, give me the courage
to reach out
and take it.

Eddie Askew from Many Voices, One Voice