A Pentecost Poem

A Pentecost Poem – (by Cheryl Lawrie)

 

come to think of it…

actually, your spirit is not really like a flickering candle sitting on the altar, which we’ve protected from scorching with a heat proof mat

 

you burn with irrepressible, ferocious passion.

 

in truth, your spirit has little in common with the gentle breeze from the fan fluttering the bulletins as it rotates from the front pews during the children’s talk

 

we can barely stand upright in the face of your love.

luckily, your spirit barely resembles a helium filled red balloon, rising, just out of reach, to taunt us as it rests against the church ceiling

 

you would subsume us in the unrelenting hold of your peace.

 

we think we have you nailed

 

in our fire resistant,

cyclone-proof,

red cloth swathed metaphors

 

thank god our inadequacy defining you has never stopped you yet.

 

I love this poem as it brings us humbly to a place of not seeking to control God but to cast ourselves upon his love once again as we meet together and say together,

 

Come Holy Spirit