Chosen in Darkness, Born in Expectation

I am my Beloved’s
He is mine
The canopy of the Universe over me
Is love

“Hineni—See, accept with a willing heart and understand that I have refined you, but not as silver; I have chosen you and made you acceptable in the furnace of affliction—depression.”
-Yeshiyahu/Isaiah 48:10

Chosen in Darkness

He wakes me at night in order to speak with me
In the daylight my ears are brick walls
I allow nothing past them
In the early hours He whispers to my dormant ears
He leads my soul to the cave opening
My mind, a cave
My ears its labyrinth tunnels

He reaches down as dawn approaches
He lifts me up
I make Aliyah—going up—to Him
He sings His great love song
The darkness flees
His fidelity encompasses me
In the darkness His light is made clear
I was blind in the daylight hours

In affliction He has chosen me
In suffering, refined me
From the darkness of my sin
He sobers me
I wake from a numb existence
I am led toward the east
His light shines in the darkness that precedes the dawn
His dawning swallows the night

“If we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patient expectation.”
-Romans 8:25

Born in Expectation

In the tangible darkness
I expect to see light
As I struggle to stand
I expect the strong right arm of support

When I gasp at my last breathe
I expect the next breathe to be Holy wind
When I’m dead to this world
I expect the resurrection, Olam Haba—the World to Come
When I wake from the sleep
I expect to see for the first time
Someone good

I expect to be surrounded by faithfulness
Guarded by fierce love
Enveloped by eternity
I expect to be complete
My soul in Him
A unity of multiplicity

I am my Beloved’s
He is mine
The canopy of the Universe over me
Is love

© 2013 Yaakov Brown