Good Friday Thoughts 2017

 This time last year I walked an English Spring
And all the promised wonders that ensue.fresh,
Where all was daffodil-shiny new,

And drank the metaphor of life reborn

This time, this year, my world to Autumn slopes

 The dying season hovers, close at hand,

Birds fly away and flowers turn to dust

The season’s adumbration cloaks the land.

So here I stand, as the year’s circle turns

And brings me back to Calvary once more

Where dark was darkest and death cruelled the earth

With hopelessness more bitter than before.

And here I visit but I shall not stay

I know the story and its gloried end;

I know my Winter has a future Spring

I know that He who died now calls me “friend”.

I know that He is life and shall not die

Again. I know His victory is complete,

His suffering is the anteroom to joy,

And it was death who suffered full defeat.

I know that seasons turn and roll and flow,

But He is faithful in His constancy.

He died, He rose, He lives forever more,

And on that day His love was sealed to me.