For an Unbeliever

Just turn a little, forget your mind;
Set all the figured world behind--
Regard the little light, that fluttering spark
(The candle that relieves the dark.)

To what corner was that glimmer cast,
For a folly built that could never last--
For to be a god only Death exalts
Pride of life, the toppling fault.

Oh, haughty eyes, regard the night--
Where stars and comets transverse, so bright
And love so lovely beckons you,
Like a whispering breeze, or cooling dew.

All hearts be cut-- all plans be dashed--
That you might still find God's truth, at last!
Behold your Maker, discard that pride
Beneath his mighty hand, to find

That the point-- ever only-- was to catch your heart
That not one be lost, no forgotten parts,
For the breaking was just to let in light--
The falling just to offer flight.

God made the patterns, the sense-- he bade
That every beauty, each disarray
Was for his pleasure--including you--
Who broke his heart to bring grace through!

Just turn a little, incline your eye;
Let every faltering flicker by--
For the lie was just to swindle you,
That the Evil One might evil do.

But Jesus-- the kindness that founts your tears!
But Jesus--  the storm that evil fears!
Time unspinning, world off course:
Broken to reveal the Source.


--Abby Elizabeth Charland

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him?
                                                                                                  --Psalm 8:3

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