If you withdrew your spirit, Lord, all of us would perish.
Life is from you. It’s your breath in our lungs, so we sing our praise to you.
It’s your delight to watch the robins build their nests,
to see the whitetail doe bring forth her fawn,
to see the rivers teem with fish,
and the fields burst forth with blossoms.
You have chosen mankind,
giving us purpose and relationship with you.
You walk with us, blessing us with human love.
In your design, a child is conceived in love
and is brought into the world,
a child, precious to you with a purer faith than schooled theologians.
You have ordained praise from the lips of infants and children.
Mankind has failed, rejecting you, earning death.
We fear death, that dark unknown, the end of what we have loved.
You made a way for us,
a way to have life, to enjoy you forever.
The way was death,
death of your Son,
death defeated by death of the only perfect One.
We waited, grieving, confused, hopeless.
Then Life burst forth,
out of the grave,
into the sky,
and said, “Follow me.”
penned by Lisa Frisch – April 2020 – in response to chapters 14 and 15 of the Gospel of Mark