15th Sunday after Pentecost

Mark 8:27-35

Your life
that precious gift of God
Lived out in so many ways
Here
In this place
Lived with joy
And pain
Love and sadness
It is ours
This gift
Until we hold so tightly
That our vision fades and we see
Only this
----(take up thy cross
----give of the one gift
----that seems most precious)
life

we see on the leaf
the fuzzy green worm
content
living on all God has given it
living
content
within the boundaries of its life
happily seeing no more than
the next leaf
until
an end comes to all that is
within its boundaries
and it finds itself hanging there
a lifeless form
from which will emerge
a new life
that will soar on the winds

life
within your boundaries
confined
willing to take up the cross
to follow
without feeling the confines
of this world
knowing
the gift has been given
of new life
beyond the boundaries.