Absolute Absolution

When Jesus could barely carry
the burden of His own Body,
He shouldered
the weight of the world.

Countless crimes
since the beginning of time
huddled into every cell
of Himself.

Pain bombarded
His bones,
but even with the sting
of sweat,
stringing beads of blood
and sizzling skin,

He could not hide
the love in His eyes,
absolving all our sin.

 

Memories

I.
I almost forgot that tall pine, rising,
just beyond the fence.
With such a panoramic view
of palms and pines and pink
bushy blooms of bottle brush,
I failed to see the tree’s
significance
against the bright and morning sky.

Straight at first,
its trunk elevated itself
in large proportion
to the landscape,
then opened twisted branches,
high, where all could see.

II.
From the outermost tips
of gnarled and weary limbs,
pine cones hung themselves
like ornaments on Christmas trees,
and hundreds of shoots burst forth
like knobby crosses born
at Easter time, but emptied now
of nails and suffering.

When the sun is at its lowest,
this tall and tortured tree cannot help
but cast some shadows
on the ground. And yet, no darkness
falls from those stout branches
without being caught
by the Great Light
which catches me.

 
Easter meditation

What love the Father
has shown in the Son!

Light sown.

Darkness overcome.

Redemption known.

Sacrifice done.

by Mary Harwell Sayler

 

 

BIO:

Mary Harwell Sayler began reading the Bible and writing poems in childhood and eventually placed poems, prayers, articles, children’s stories, and devotionals with Christian and educational publishers as well as three dozen books in all genres. She’s led Bible discussions in many churches and reviews new Bibles on the Bible Reviewer blog. Recently she collected prayers from the major translations, paraphrased them into everyday English, and published the Book of Bible Prayers followed by the King James only version. She then gathered many of her poems from previously published work into the poetry collection, A Gathering of Poems.