Today's poem reflects on Elijah's 40 day wilderness experience which concluded with God revealing Himself in a gentle way and how that contrasts with Jesus' 40 day experience which concluded with the devil tempting Him. Each man had three "confrontations" into the supernatural, so much to take in.
Advent, day 12. Nine Centuries and Two Prophets.
1 Ki 19:11 The LORD said,
“Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD,
for the LORD is about to pass by."
Nine hundred years apart
stand two men
but the wilderness is the same:
sand and wind, scorpions and adders, silence and eternity
hang trembling
brushing the desert floor with fingers of desolation.
The Spirit drives one prophet out
The LORD calls the other near:
they both wait, expectantly.
To one: Go out and stand, I’m passing by.
The other bypassed.
Wind tears the mountains,
—tearing is for paper or cloth
how does one tear a mountain?
—shatters the rocks
gale force cannot shatter alone!
how does a wind, rip roaring, shatter stone?
Make those stones bread: feed authentic hunger
—see a need, embrace, it, meet it, be relevant
Make yourself useful.
Earth quakes and shakes,
crevasse jaws open wide,
maws swallow boulders,
teeth rasp trees with a smile,
gurgling borborygmus of the deep.
Jump those ravines
Leap from the heights and tall buildings:
know that you are safe,
protected by unconditional immunity.
You won’t slip because He doesn’t sleep.
Chill in the certainty of guaranteed spectacularity.
Petulant fire feasts on forests,
—licks her chops with blackened tongues,
relishing the conflagration
of her cooking:
the crust scorched to perfection
with the charred and lifeless creatures
baked inside.
Make it easy on yourself.
No need for theatrics,
skip the heroics:
A simple knee to the ground
is all it takes.
Merely a gesture of goodwill—
nothing changes,
nothing at all.
In the blink of eternity,
the faintest whisper.
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