Ode to a Friend

Lost was I in a dark, dark wood. 

Chasing after fireflies that lit up the night. 

I discovered I was all alone 

facing dangers from without and from within. 

Some signs illuminated by the small slit of the moon said, 

"Walk this way." 

Taking small unsure steps I went and did as I was told. 

As the living shadows pulled all around me 

I ended up wondering if the way I chose had been the right one. Hearing noises, 

voices that surrounded my mind with echos of the past,

I guessed that death was slowly, creeping, enveloping my heart. 

How did I get here in this forest of negativity, doubt, despair, and longing? 

I cannot get the shouts of pain from bouncing off the cave that I call my brain. 

Some shout my name, 

some shout others names who I know so well. 

They tell me to listen 

to become this or that, 

in order to get from behind the dark curtain. 

Something deep within, whispers my real name. 

At first it is faint enough only for me to guess what it speaks. 

As I am completely sheltered by darkness, 

the whisperings begin to gain strength. 

I hear a voice struggling to be heard. 

A voice I haven't heard before. 

It gently, caressingly says my name over and over. 

I could not hear it before the agony of death was upon me. 

As I begin in that place of death, 

where before I was surrounded by darkness, 

darkness that I was a part of, 

a melding of me and the darkness, 

no separation. 

The louder I hear the voice and walk towards its music, 

I begin to Be. 

I begin to be separate, 

where death became the beginning of new life. 

Oh how odd real life felt to me. 

I wanted often to run back, 

and often did, 

run back to the old, familiar, dark, dreary woods. 

Comfortable in my misery, I would sit among the ashes, 

reveling in the feeling of old familiarity. 

Once again I would hear a voice whisper my name 

and the ashes would no longer satisfy with their grey, black tones. 

It was the singing I longed for. 

The joyous songs of melody shouting my name, 

delighting in my broken spirit. 

In that darkness I found the true light. 

In the ashes I found life eternal. 

In the broken self I found the God of the Universe delighting in my name, and my being, 

giving Him glory and honor and praise, 

I belong to Him, 

His creation. 

He brought beauty from ashes, 

and from death resurrected life. 

All in the whispering of a name. 

Jesus name above all names. 

"To the one who conquers I will give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.

Revelations 2:17