Jeduthun

© June 28, 2008 by Norman Stolpe

Am I the only funeral pastor
imagining myself one day to be
the one whose life’s recounted with fervor
across some sign of my dust and ashes?

Am I the only funeral pastor
yearning to trust the sure and certain hope,
with fierce assurance for my hearers’ hearts,
that I myself find peace – God has spoken?

Am I the only funeral pastor
waiting in silence in my soul as God’s
passing guest invited and welcomed for
permanent residence and settled home?

For God alone my soul waits in silence,
and in the silence I will cling to peace.

Gittith

© June 27, 2008 by Norman Stolpe

I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.

Psalm 131:2

Abandoned to a Chinese orphanage,
Elizabeth snuggles, secure and safe
in Rachel’s anxious and adopting arms –
mother and daughter content in their embrace.

Uncertain waiting yields a bond of love
as strong and real as womb or gene or breast.
Which one will claim she had the most to give?
Which heart is most mysteriously blessed?

Half-a-world-apart, bureaucracies
match this specific child with this mother,
heedless of God’s hidden beneficence,
divine embrace extends to the other.

Abandoned and alone, I am amazed
to find comfort in the divine embrace.