Quaker Worship: The Metaphor Moves In Two Directions

Quaker Worship: The Metaphor
Moves in Two Directions

1.

We come into this stillness
like snowfall, the air
alive with angels, every
blessed flake singular and
mysterious, what's outside
quiet now, and changing
form. Quickening, we
breathe silence. Presence
holds our lives in hush.
Light dazzles. Listening,
we learn to answer,
and we keep each other warm.

2.

Silence wraps us close. We're
comforted, although the angry world
is cold. We love the spell
of falling snow, and tell
how beautiful it is
inside together here
with God
who may want us
wiser, other,
clumsy great Saint Bernards
rising from beside the fire to go out
across blizzard mountains,
carrying rescue into the wild air.

~ Jeanne Lohmann ~

(Between Silence and Answer)