I read this morning about the kingdom

I’m grateful that I don’t at all feel numb

In fact, I sense spring in February

And when I ponder death, it doesn’t scare me

I listen to the birds in the early morning

Before the sun rises

My friend just lost her parents; a young woman died of cancer; others by age

None of the obituaries are surprises

But I still find it strange

That a person is here then gone

Once photographed

Then memorialized in an epitaph

My high school yearbook photos are in black and white

Back then they were new, designed to look cool

Now I know few things really are black or white

The pier me and my friends used to hang out at is the same one where a man drove his car off – into the ocean

I heard a theologian say, “Death fixes everything in you that’s not right”

My sentiment echoes Nicodemus’

Nearly 30 years now I’ve been looking for Jesus

Not just a name or a feel-good emotion

How can one live

Is it to die with nothing

You call out my duplicity

The white words from a polluted heart

My generosity for show

But the root of me, you really know

And I hate the evil, the death

The waywardness that takes my breath

Will You fix the pier

Will You make me and my friends pure

Make us reborn, be our cure

What’s on the other side of death