The Mantle (part 5)

As time spent in the blossom
for the bee;
so was my time in the mantle.
But when I swarmed in its interior,
I knew I was meant
for more.

Such invested time is not just for this day,
(as the bee knows life)
but for all tomorrows also
(as those know life who await a coming harvest.)

Even though the days of budding vines,
the blooming grape vines,
are the season of love--
there is
nonetheless
that harvest to consider.
And even though I sit amidst these gnarled roots,
a bee for now,
considering how fair and pleasant
is the lily Thou art,
my King,
I know Thou are also
strength.

So I return to my origins:

What can I say of the One who reaches
and grasps the curtain of heaven
to pull its light from the rod where it hangs
to wrap it about Him like a garment;
whose mantle of light flashes
embroidery of honor and majesty
for its insignia?

What do I say when He comes, walking on the wind,
in His perfect knowledge?


I have seen His mantle of light
but I likewise know it hidden;
hidden from the wise and given to babes
to sing its comforts.
He bows the heavens to come to man, but
comes hidden in dark waters.
He bows the heavens to come to man on the wings of the wind, but
so small and seemingly insignificant.
Do I remember that You are the One
who will uncover the foundations of the earth,
one day?
Do I remember Your light, though for now
Your canopy is dark waters?

I will remember, but not because
I am so wise;
I will remember because calamity
makes me know it.
My adversity requires it of me.
The lining that hates me, rubs me.
For in it resides the divided heart of my enemy.
But this is the secret I have learned,
cocooned in this cape,
and I am no longer speechless:

"As the fruit of adversity is given by his hand,
(yes brought by the hand
of my strong enemy)
nevertheless,
he is powerless to stop its transformation
to sweetness
under Thy mantle.
And even now, the moth invades the lining;
it only knows to feed in the dark
and die in the light.
How did he not see the way of the moth?
(After all, this is the law of life.)
As for his harvest, his crop rots,
grown too large for him to manage.
Pestilence: this is his hoe.
But pests, though willing to work for their own bellies' sakes,
still grow unruly.

He is anguished, but he is proud.
Even now, his chin is high as he looks above these fields he took,
where locusts swarm the dying harvest at his feet.
Denial keeps his head high,
his gaze firmly above
the death of his self-ordained inheritance.
His subjects are instinctive;
they know nothing
but to feed
till all is gone.
They have been taught nothing of sacrifice.
(Again this is the law of life for those
he calls to allegiance.
How could he not know the way of it?)

As for me, I understand the thread that binds--
faith
hope
and love--
where moth and rot find no bounty.
I will remember that You send from heaven
to rescue me.
I will remember that I needed You, O Strength.
I will remember even when You bring me to that broad place
where my thirst is slaked.

And though a wall rises--
broad, black, gleaming--
(who can gaze up its dizzying span?)
still You will make me leap over it,
like a vine that creeps,
a bewilderment
seeing that it comes
from a root that looks
(effectively)
dead.

One day, I will stand at that wall's summit
where this mantle that now hangs from my shoulders,
(limp and a little strange in its rippling folds)
this veil will whip in a strong wind.
And there, no part of it will suffer questions
regarding its crafting.
No, not there.
Then I will look out and see that it is time,
(when the golden blossom fit for bees
becomes a white field fit for harvest.)
And I will raise my hands in adulation, crying:
"You lifted me here. Even me.
Though many were against me,
--and I but a work of mixed clay--
yet You avenge me.
Let the God of my salvation be exalted!"

Chorus:
Job 38:12Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; [and] caused the dayspring to know his place;

Job 38:13That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?

Job 38:14It is turned as clay [to] the seal; and they stand as a garment.

Job 38:15And from the wicked their light is withholden, and the high arm shall be broken