Empty: Lamentations: Prayers and Poetry

                 Empty

                She wanders through

                familiar streets

                empty.

                Children's laughter

                once vibrant

                echoes hollow

                in the silence.

                Her hands trace

                shells of

                past pleasure

                as she walks

                by

                homes, shops

                now shapeless haunts.

                Turns quickly

                at sudden noise

                only wind blown debris

                clanging.

                Resumes penance

                walk

                hungry for days of old

                remembering precious

                things,

                lost

                captured by

                her transgressions.

Psalm 37:2: "for they will soon fade like the grass, and wither like the green herb."

Reflection: Wither: Lamentations: Prayers and Poetry

 Reflection Questions 

                1. Where do you feel loss most recently?

                2. What words from the lament echo your experience? Or do you find it difficult to  relate?

                3. How do you keep bitterness away when it nibbles at you in emptiness?

                4. Is there something you need to release and return to the Lord in penitence?

Share: How have you found His peace in times of loss before? How is this different?

Wither: Lamentations: Prayers and Poetry

 Reading: Lamentations 1:3-7: "Judah has gone into exile...The roads of Zion are in mourning...All her gates are desolate...Her enemies prosper...In the days of her affliction and homelessness Jerusalem remembers all her precious things that were from the days of old...".

Wither 

Sometimes, or maybe too often, we forget to seek through the past as well as the present to see links. Again and again world wide throughout the centuries countries have become desolate by wars and lies and disease. And now pandemic.

Yet we still look only at the outer destruction and often ignore the parts of ourselves that have already become separated from the Lord--until we come into danger.

At some level each of us needs to recognize our emptiness to be restored to His 'city'. To be restored to the home His has chosen for us, heart home, both here and when time to move to heaven.

Lord, we ask You to give us insight and courage to live into Your truth in all circumstances and not let go.

And then share with those around us Your truth and guidance. Your heart home. With compassion and trust and faith.

Your thoughts,