Tell Me How it Was: Yahrzeit 2014

Tell Me How it Was 


when you found yourself washed up on that shore, barefoot, in that tattered sweater and those well-worn jeans.   Tell me how the tallest of the angels raised you up in both his arms.  Tell me how he unfurled his wings so the vast winds of heaven filled you up with an everlasting breath until you knew your spirit would never again falter or fail.
Tell me how when they handed you roses for winning the race, you began to twist the thorns into a crown.  Tell me how they laughed, and said, "No more.  That's over. You can do anything you want with the flowers, but we have another crown waiting for you here."  


Tell me how instead you planted your roses on the far shore of the Jordan.


Tell me how the barefoot Prince of Peace walked up to you as you knelt planting roses and placed a crown of gold olive leaves on your head.   Tell me how he drew you up into his arms and called you his friend.  Tell me how heaven rang with one long chord, every harmony unwavering, an eternal song.   


Tell me how he placed his hand over your heart until it began to ring with the same song, set to God's own heartbeat.  Tell me how you both climbed the hill together barefoot to cross the bridge spanning the river of light.  And how you two looked down from the bridge on the river of your life as it wound round the mountains.
And he began to show you your life in the lights glistening in the waters, your gifts and inclinations in the currents, your obstacles in the rocks.  And the greatest obstacles were the mountains.  


And he told you that in your life, you had let the mountains sing.  


--Pam Richards, Yahrzeit 2014