“Jesus, remember me
when you come into your kingdom.”
—Luke 23.42
Nails of our sin in your flesh,
shout of our blame in your ears,
thorns of our pain in your bleeding brow,
nailed to our crosses,
our cruelty your condemnation,
all we have pierced you with,
all the evil we have flogged you with—
still you love,
you who would not save yourself but us,
climbing up the cross of our utterest despair,
heaving your ruined flesh up close to us,
crawling, trembling, into our suffering—
nothing, nothing can defeat your love.
I have stolen
to be this close to you,
you who have stolen my unworthiness,
you who break into my absolute loneliness,
sovereign who treats me, a thief and a beggar,
as more worthy.
For only a morsel of that healing,
only a sip of that grace, I would die.
Your realm that endures, that conquers
all shame and fear, all realms and empires,
I seek, I trust, more than I know how.
Demolished One, still you love,
and that alone saves me.
Jesus, remember me
when you come into your kingdom.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net