Lazarus

How many things have to die before there is life?

I weep at every grave, every death that seems to me

Untimely.

My hands are blistered from the shovel that gets no lighter,

For the ground is always frozen,

And there are always stones to dissuade me,

Trying to convince me to play again with the old bones,

To use my childhood eyes to make believe life—

No.

I need life filled with eternal breath,

With no more thirst in my throat, for my soul is quenched by glory—

Yea, this is why I dig graves.

There is resurrection. There is life.

There are souls that never die.

There is a first day of dying,

There is a second of death,

But lo, there is a Third, when the tomb yawns and awakens,

Opens on the dawn, on the sun, on the Son of Man in full glory with eyes of flame and a voice of many waters.

Yes, Lord, there is death upon death and what can I do but mourn?

There is a field full of graves, seeds planted in living hope of an increase of harvest in the day of the Lord.

There is death, but yes, Lord, I believe that there is life, full and sweet,

One that does not end but reigns on, where very sense is baffled by the presence of the God of my salvation,

Jehovah, my Shepherd, my King, my Beloved,

Where the youths will no more be burdened by weariness

Or faint with exhaustion as they toil in the field,

But will run and not fail, whose knees will not weaken until they come closer to the Lamb,

Where they will fall down to worship Him with all the joy that there is space for in their hearts—

Yes, Lord, yes. I believe that I will look upon you in the Land of the Living,

Where the song shall never fade on my lips.

And I believe that every moment of this dying life on this fallen earth is worth the eternal weight of glory that remains to be seen.

All I ask for now, oh God, is strips of linen to bind my hands, that I may dig this grave,

That I may plant the seed that you pressed into my hand.

Another death, another life,

And a hope, awake and burning within my soul that gives me eyes to see the tomb,

And ears to hear the voice which speaks the words,

“Take away the stone.”