Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Scarlet Cord

This is an inspirational poem by Tom Hoornstra, Keweenaw UU Fellowship, Houghton, MI, who attended our Celebration Service at the UUA-GA. He was inspired after hearing our Celebration Service.

Scarlet Cord


How often I’ve seen it: God’s secret servants,
guardian angels, some of them human;
the saving stroke, the outstretched hand,
the line flung to save the drowning man;
the cord strung across a Jericho doorway,
marking the ones set aside for protection;
the scarlet streak on Israel’s dwellings,
the five scarlet wounds flowing rivers of healing,
the signs of His covenant-love on the altar,
seals of betrothal, standing to witness:
“This one is mine, and noone may touch them!”

And there is a River faithfully flowing
down through the years of my life’s many seasons,
like a thread running through a tapestry, weaving,
binding the wounds and stitching the edges,
the ripped, ragged seams, the gaps in-between
these striving attempts and sad incompletions,
the things I did and my heart’s real intentions;
A touch of grace when I least expect it,
a song in the night, the words of a poet,
the music contained in a reddening sunset;
a face in the crowd, the smile of a sister,
the soft, secret force which binds us together.

And so I have found that it’s not by compulsion,
nor by decree, nor force of persuasion,
doctrines, religions, organizations
that a heart is redeemed and bound to another,
but by covenant-love, faithful, persistent,
the gentle betrothal of spirit to spirit.
Prophet of old, truly you saw it…

“Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit”,
says the Lord Almighty. Zech. 4:6


The grace we can experience when we’re emptied enough, transparent enough in our feeling and perception, to see the beauty in one another and in Creation all around us, and so walk in the harmony, grace, and blessedness of that beauty.


Dear Oak Ridge UU's,

I attended, and loved, your improvisational worship at GA. The music and message struck some chords with my own experience, as expressed in poetry: see Attached.

Tom Hoornstra, Keweenaw UU Fellowship, Houghton, MI.