Unprecedented {A Poem}

 

Worlds, stars, atoms, galaxies,

Spoken into being—

                Unprecedented.

Roses, bluebonnets, honeysuckle, ferns;

Holly trees, and giant redwoods;

Kangaroos, giraffes, grizzly bears, hummingbirds, and dachshunds;

Swordfish, catfish, octopi, whales,

All created with a “Let there be”—

                Unprecedented.

The first human shaped by God from dirt,

Life breathed into that mudpie man by the Potter—

                Unprecedented.

The first rain filling the deepest ravines,

Overwhelming the tallest mountain peaks,

A lone family afloat in the quarantine deluge—

                Unprecedented.

Abram called from his homeland,

His wife a nonagenarian first-time mom,

Their promised son on the altar,

The knife raised,

A ram in the brambles offered in his stead—

                Unprecedented.

God’s chosen people delivered to Egypt from famine,

Then delivered into slavery to Pharaoh,

Their deliverer born in secret, raised in Pharaoh’s house,

Called out of hiding in the wilderness

To lead God’s people out of Egypt

With ten devastating plagues—

                Unprecedented.

40 years of trekking through the wilderness,

Led and sheltered by the fire-cloud pillar of God’s glory—

                Unprecedented.

City walls collapsing with  shout and trumpet blast—

                Unprecedented.

A shepherd boy, the giant-slayer with the slingshot,

The man after God’s own heart,

Receiving kingdom and covenant—

                Unprecedented.

A gilded temple whose true splendor was the shekinah glory-fire of God

Descending as the king prayed its dedication—

                Unprecedented.

That temple defiled by false sacrifices to false gods,

The glory exchanged for worthless vanity—

                Unprecedented.

A nation chosen by God sent into exile for her sins,

Preserved and protected even in captivity—

                Unprecedented.

The sulky spokesperson cast into the storm,

Into the sea,

Into the stomach of the great fish,

Outspat upon a beach,

Given a second chance

To proclaim judgment and repentance to his people’s enemies—

                Unprecedented.

Those enemies submitting themselves,

Repenting in sackcloth

From the king to the stables—

                Unprecedented.

Another prophet sharing a safe sleepover with a pride of ravenous lions—

                Unprecedented.

Three faithful Hebrews thrown into a furnace so hot it killed their escort,

Four men walking freely in the fire,

Three emerging unsinged, without even a whiff of smoke on their robes—

                Unprecedented.

That wayward people brought back miraculously to the land of promise,

Rebuilding financed by Nehemiah’s royal employer—

                Unprecedented.

Promised forerunner born to a priest and his barren wife,

Grey hair, wrinkles, and prenatal vitamins—

                Unprecedented.

Very God of Very God, Light of Light,

Enshrouding Himself in an embryo,

Implanted in the darkness of a virgin’s womb,

Waiting for nine months,

Submitting Himself to the violent rigors of birth,

Submitting Himself to the authority of sinful human parents,

Submitting Himself to the unjust slander against his parents and the timing of His birth,

“The carpenter’s Son” (wink, wink)—

Unprecedented.

The God-Man living a perfect life,

Dying the death we sinners deserve,

Submitting Himself to pain and mockery again,

Rising from the tomb on the third day for our justification—

                Unprecedented.

Ten dozen men and women

Praying in an upper room

Setting the world ablaze with good news

When the Spirit of their Savior lit them with tongues of fire—

                Unprecedented.

In this unprecedented year,

So full of unprecedented challenges and griefs,

Let us cling to the comfort of the many times “unprecedented” has been

The signature of God scrawled across the pages of history.

May He work unprecedented glories from this unprecedented year.

 

Aslan is on the move, friends.

Courage, dear hearts!  

 

~crlm, 12/14/20