Poem for 16th 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.