You serve me the finest food
Right before my enemy
You lift my broken head
And pour on me your blessing
And your shepherds crook makes me feel safe
Your beauty and love chase after me as long as I live
And I will be back home with you for ever
But from the man came this prayer;
.
You are my shepherd
You bring me to lie in dark green pastures
And find me the coolest pools to drink from
You guide me along the paths of your righteousness
And restore my troubled soul
Even though my way goes through the valley of the dead
I fear no evil
For you walk with me
He was a man, and men need food and rest.
So evil saw its chance.
It stalked him- ready to strike.
Each day bore down on him.
The horizons swim, liquid in the heat
But he does not stop…
Walking, walking.
Listening.
Here too was cruelty
The desert reached out and tore at him
Thorns scarring his body- ripping into his flesh…
Soon to become
His crown
Even here there were temptations- distractions.
Fruit that promised relief from the cravings he felt
But instead brought sickness, and death.
Time seemed to have no meaning. Hours passed and faded into days.
He walked half in this world, half in another.
A sharp stone poked him back into full reality, and he picked it up.
A stone to make men stumble and a rock to make then fall.
He walked on into days. Still drawn by a voice- now right here, then distant.
One moment closer than his own heartbeat, then just a distant whisper in the desert wind.
Now is your time, my son… and through you all things will be made new.
It seemed for a while that this man was no longer an alien in this place.
The wild places had remembered him, taken him back as their own.
And in the dark earth, a flower found itself again, and pushed out into the daylight at the mans feet.
He lay down and looked at this wonder. It held him in the spell of its delicate beauty.
He dreamed again of this new beginning. This new springtime.
Is it now father? Is now our time?
this fragile tent 