Earth Discovered Heaven: a Christmas Psalm

 by Ronald Kok

 

The sun rises each and every day

It shines and daily gives its life light

Yet darkness dominates our way

We stumble, eyes bereft of sight

 

We think we know the road, the path

Yet we repeat the past, we fail

To grasp, living in gasps, in wrath

Despite light given, we rant, we wail

 

Climbing, striving, to reach the divine

Hoping our toil will bring us peace

Slipping, falling, aching for a sign

We see life as pain with no reprieve

 

We are alone, it can be easy to think

Around us is war, hunger, lies, abyss

Darkness drags us to the very brink

Life laughs at us, betrays with a kiss

 

But there is a Birth, a baby’s eyes

There is a song of vulnerable might

A silver note that splits dark skies

Revealing hope to drive out the night

 

A Grace that takes the hardest road

Down to dust, sin, heartache, death

A Grace lifting Pilgrim’s awful load

Giving all true Life and Peace, Breath

 

The Divine in human life, human sighs

Striving, aching, to reach each and all

Climbing, toiling, the Glory laying by

Lifting us all to glory in his fall

 

No expectation on us was there

To find a way to the Throne above

His plan, purpose, passion was here

In the Way called Grace, Peace, Love

 

The struggle to find truth supreme

Is no struggle, no task, no chore

Truth in person, Truth that beams

God’s Gift is given forever and more

 

This is the Life that laughs, that sings

The Life that death could not waste

Life whose Grace-dance around us rings

Giving us of dust heaven’s wondrous taste

 

It shines in darkness, shatters gloom

This Gift is precious and glows real

In our life’s pain and threat of doom

Nothing can dispel the Grace that heals

 

The Way we seek, the Truth we find

Is met in the Life of Glory given

Seekers lost have been found, in kind

And we on earth discovered heaven