I’ll admit it.
Sometimes I cry at the end of a book.
Okay, more like all the time.
I just finished the first Percy Jackson series today and there were definitely tears in my eyes. You see, as an avid reader and even more avid writer, I develop these really deep connections to book characters. They’re like friends – even if I made them up myself. Especially then.
So I guess it’s safe to say that I really don’t like endings, even if they’re great. I just want the story to keep going. Maybe that’s why two of my favorite words in the Bible are “but God.” They always show up at really strategic times, right when you think the story’s over. Like when Abraham laughed at the idea of a 100-year-old man becoming a father. “But God said, ‘No. Your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will name him Isaac.'” (Genesis 17:19a) Or When Jacob found his son Joseph in Egypt after years of thinking he was dead. “I never expected to see your face again, but now God has even let me see your offspring.” (Gensis 48:11) Or – probably the most dramatic example – when Jesus was taken down dead from the cross and sealed in a tomb. Everyone thought it was over. “But God raised Him from the dead,” (Acts 13:30)
So I suppose that’s why I wrote this poem. Because sometimes I forget the story isn’t over!
But God
Moses stood and looked at the chaos far below.
All his work was for nothing.
His people had been led astray by their own desire.
But God was there.
Joshua gazed at the walls and knew it was impossible.
One nation of nomads against a city full of giants.
But God was there.
300 men against 1,000s.
In no fantasy in all the world could Gideon succeed.
But this wasn’t a fantasy.
Because God was there.
A shepherd boy became a king,
A man after God’s own heart.
Finds himself running from his own son,
As his world falls to pieces.
But God was there.
For Abraham.
For Joseph.
For Mary.
For Paul.
And somehow in the dark of my own starless night,
When I feel light can never be found,
In the place where I thought I would lose all my hope,
I found my God was there.
