What Does It Mean?
©2019 Susan Noyes Anderson
image by Simon Dewey
What does it mean that Jesus walked
upon the earth so long ago?
What stake is mine in His descending
to a humble life below?
I was not there to welcome Him,
nor hear the oxen lowing nigh.
I did not see His ministry
with saints and sinners standing by.
Beyond my view, He healed the sick,
gave comfort to the blind and lame.
I was not fed with the 5,000,
never heard Him call my name.
His hem and feet I did not touch.
His sermons all escaped my ear.
He walked the waters, soothed the tempest,
raised the dead outside my sphere.
I wasn’t privy to His sorrows
in the garden of his grief.
His trial I did not witness, nor
His suffering that begged relief.
My earthly gaze did not behold
His painful death or joyful rise.
All of his doings, large and small,
were unobserved by my own eyes.
And so, what does it mean to me…
Christ’s walk on earth, that brief foray?
It means a promise, strong and sure:
a shining resurrection day…
A pathway to eternal life!
My Lord has saved me, now and then.
I cherish His sweet sacrifice.
It means my son will rise again.
If this poem resonates with you, you might also want to read my poem, Easter Means More. For additional poems about death, grief and loss, click here.
Tags: bereavement, child loss, Christ, death, life after death, mourning, resurrection