Friday, March 21, 2014

Winter Does Not Have the Last Word

Was The Grass Really Ever  Green?    

“Was the grass really ever green
Were the sounds of birds really clearly heard
And did we picnic in the park only six months ago
Here in midwinter they seem so far away
The naked trees, the laden skies seems always to have been
And seem out ahead for all time
Were things really ever green
And will spring come back again?

Yes, the spring will return
The gray, dull days of cold will pass
The routine now imprisoning us will be broken up
Anew excitement will be awakened by new possibilities
The despair which now engulfs us will subside
A word of hope will come to us
Our presumption that all is lost
  will be replaced by a renewed expectancy
Future will become a possibility again
The crush of demands will not dominate us forever
Out of liberation we will learn to choose
And in our choices to be secure.

The sadness now weighing upon us will be lifted
Joy will speak her acknowledgment of grief
  and will sound her call to us
The cause of sadness will not have vanished
But joy will come in spite of it
We will laugh again
We will sing and dance
We will celebrate the life now given to us.

The conflicts now engaging our energy
   will be worked through
No wind will sweep them from us
We will go through them
And we will survive
Redemption will come of our transactions
Relationships will be rescued and restored
And where breaks are too deep to be one,
Healing will come in time, though apart
The tensions tearing at our being will be resolved
We will not be destroyed.

Were things really ever green
And will the spring come back again
Yes, yes as sure as e’re it were here
Yes, yes, assure as winter’s here
Yes, yes, as sure as God is
The spring will return
And it will be green again.
   --G. Temp Sparkman

(I have given this poem to members of my Grief Group. I think it offers hope in a very hard time. It was written by a father after the loss of her daughter with leukemia.)

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