Apropos a lot of things

Another poem from F. Ohler's collection Better Than Nice and Other Unconventional Prayers

Life Is God-Sized

We bring our idols;

You are God.

We come with our theologies;

You are "God only wise."

We keep trying to reduce life to size

with our theology

our biology

our psychology

with all our ologies...

and

You elude our logic

You burst our boxes.

For that we praise You

and rejoice

that life is God-sized

never fully understood

drenched in mysteries

more startling than all our systems.

Humble us all

lest we shrink Your world to what WE know

or can handle.

Help us each

to let it be as unruly

wild

and grace-full

as it is.

Loosen us

to dance with joy

and to wail with sorrow

to laugh to cry to celebrate to grieve.

Help us

not only to be caught by the exceptional

but to be stunned by the ordinary

to marvel at what we call "common"--

sparrow

the people

sense

touch

and all the small and daily blessings.

My God

how incredible that we are here (and not a million OTHER places)

that we are together

that we are alive

that we are at all.

Keep us

young expectant unsure open

nervous sensitive

and alive...

at whatever age

amen.

Awe-full

Great and holy God
awe and reverence
fear and trembling
do not come easily to us
for we are not
Old Testament Jews
or Moses
or mystics
or sensitive enough.
Forgive us
for slouching into Your presence
with little expectation
and less awe
than we would eagerly give a visiting dignitary.
We need
neither Jehovah nor a buddy –
neither “the Great and Powerful Oz” nor “the man upstairs.”
Help us
to want what we need…
You
God
and may the altar of our hearts
tremble with delight
at
Your visitation
amen.

~Frederick Ohler

This poem was found as a meditation in the Mosaic Bible which is a regular New Living Translation of the Bible with a special section in the front that has art, essays, and poems by authors across time periods and continents. These are organized thematically and weekly into the church calendar. So this poem was a meditation for the first week of Lent which is this week.

It's been a long time since I have read poetry, and I like this one.