Exloring Life Eternal

In the sunset of his sojourn
he came, bearing gifts,
wearied with unworthiness
and all the myriad "ifs."

"If I had known what I know now
would all have been the same?
If I had loved as love demands
could I have brought such pain?

"If I could return to former times
and cross the bygone years
could I kiss away the sordid sins
and wipe the wasted tears?"

"What's done is done," she says,
the stars left from her eyes.
And I still care! Yet, though I try,
my heart is filled with "Whys?"

"Why did you hurt me once again
after we were old?
I tried so many, many times
and thought the tale was told.

"Why was it simply not enough
to crush my youthful heart,
to rip my children from the nest
and tear us all apart?

"Why did it need to be that lust
could drive you to such sin?
Why make me fight that awful thing?
How could I hope to win?"

He sags into a tattered chair,
the gifts slip to the floor.
"I'm so ashamed," he weeps.
"But it¹s not true any more."

The addiction is done, the craving controlled,
God knows I've tried.
I'd like to spend our remaining years
close by your side.

"Is it too late? Can it never be?
Has the story been too long?
Have the struggles of the recent years
been altogether wrong?"

And I get a picture of Another Love,
rejected yet utterly spent -
a Man out of God still giving His all
for a world not innocent.

I have taken His love and squandered His gifts
and spit on His beautiful scars.
Now I come near in the evening of life
and ask Him to lower the bars.

She says,
"Let's try again! What's there to lose?"
And a twinkle returns to her eyes.
"None else would do it," he says,
and he bows his old head and cries.

Yet Another has done and continues to do
all this and much, much more.
He forgives it all and puts it away
and opens wide the door.

"But," He says, "it's not the same. You are different now
and I want your life to show
that you are changed, that you are Mine!
I want them all to know!"

So man and God have tried to love
and necessity, in each case,
insists on and provides a
tremendous extension of grace!

- Bill Hawkins
February 12, 2006