AND I WEPT... a poem

Just before morn’ I was led up the steep slope of a great mountain.
The path was crooked, rocky…difficult to climb.
With much effort I reached the top,
My body, aching, collapsed on a rock…
And I wept.

He spoke: “Lift up your eyes and see.”
What vista lay before me; a valley stretching to the sunrise.
Filled with a multitude…countless numbers.
Living life…fretting, scurrying, struggling.
A few were happy, many were sad.
But I could see they all were lost…
And I wept.

My path led down the other side of the mountain;
Down to the multitude.
And through them into the far distance.
This path, I was being asked to walk.
Moments of my life became clear.
Hardships, rejections, a few saved,
Many eternally lost.
A struggle consuming my life…
And I wept.

He spoke: “Be encouraged.”
My path culminated in the sunrise,
Only it wasn’t the sun, but the Son!
It was my entrance into glory,
He awaited me with rewards.
He was smiling, welcoming,
Waiting for my arrival!
I saw His beauty, His delight in my life…
And I wept.

But the path.
It led down the mountain and through that multitude.
There was no turning back.
There would be no other way to reach His glory.
The burden was great, but I knew what I must do.
I sat. Contemplated. Breathed once deeply…
And I wept.

He spoke: “You don’t have to travel alone.”
I looked back from whence I’d climbed.
Waiting for me at the foot of that great mountain was my army.
Small in number; a pitiful force for such a task, for such a multitude.
Is this how Moses felt? Or Gideon?
Had they ever wept?

What would they think?
How would they respond?
What could we accomplish?
Questions and sadness. I knew what this path…this journey…would mean for them.
Sacrifice. Pain. Endurance, faith and trust would be needed.
They would pay a dear price.
This I knew…
And I wept.

I spoke: “Join me!”
And they began to climb.
As they reached the top, they saw the path and the multitude.
Dawning upon them was the journey ahead.
But each also glimpsed the Lord…smiling, waiting for us all.
We worshiped.
I raised my sword…we started down the mountain…
And I wept.