"You put this child, dear God" - Poem

You put this child, dear God
Into my hands today,

I the potential sculptor

He the mortal clay.

In reaching out to him I pray

That you will give me skill,

So I may help to mold him

According to your will.

Other hands have molded

Smoothed away a line,

Each one has left its mark

In efforts to refine;

As it nears completion

There's a hope in every heart,

That the finished product

Will be "A Work of Art."

-- anonymous

Lord,

a member of my church shared

the above poem with me.

On first read,

I thought about

the responsibility of raising a child,

in my case, a son.

Then my mind wondered,

"Is this a prayer that Joseph

may have prayed over raising Jesus?"

Then my mind wandered

to reflect on the Child of God within me.

Perhaps, Lord, this is a prayer

for shaping and molding

the Beloved Child of God

in each human life.

The member who shared this with me

is in his 90s

a kind remarkable humble man

full of vigor

In his laugh and his smile,

I see childlike wonder

-- maybe even mischief

and the last stanza

takes on introspection:

As life nears completion,

may it be "A Work of Art."

And I am reminded of Ephesians 2:10

"For we are God’s handiwork..."

The Greek word translated here "handiwork"

is poema.

It could equally be translated:

creation, work of art, poem, magnus opus.

Lord,

today I celebrate

the work of art you are creating me to be

and the "Work of Art"

in each human life.

Amen