Strange day,

I wake, not from the horrors of the night,

but to bird song and sunshine,

then the sound of children playing in the garden next-door,

but the horrors of the night greet me

in the Gospel pages,

betrayal, arrest, scourging, mocking, humiliation,

these are the stories of the night,

and Jesus barely speaks,

even now he choses to heal,

to stand his ground,

to speak truth,

and with the dawn comes the sentence,

death, cruel crucifixion,

I read as the sun shines and the child plays,+

and I want the world to stop….

but it will not stop,

that of course is the point,

for while the words it is finished are uttered,

life somehow enters death,

and death is being swallowed by life,

the story does not take us there today,

hope seems to have deserted uss,

but it is there,

flickering small,

asking only

can you trust?

can you believe?

women at the cross