Monday, May 17, 2021

"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

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