Times past I thought we had forever

Tomorrow always moving one step ahead;

The specter of age looming just behind each passing moment

Counting backward to the day

The hour that no one knows for sure.

But I know your day, your hour… your time.

A gentle glow against a pitch black night announced

Your triumphant entry into joy.

Your fingers grasped mine still, your heart beat softly

Chest rose and fell in random breath

But you were gone. I smiled and slipped into an unreality

A soft protective warmth around my fractured soul.

How can it be that I, one with you, am left without while you

Have gained it all? How is it that such selfish sorrow screams

At once in concert with my rejoicing heart… my shattered heart? 

How can it be?

What’s left of me moves on, going through the motions

Grateful beyond expression for the son who sat with me

As your broken, earthbound self, breathed in and quit.

I didn’t tell him then that you had already gone

That the forever you, exalted beyond our meager

Bereft realm, is changed; forever different, forever new.

It is truly odd to me, how just one half of who I was can hold onto

So much love: A seemingly endless supply often misunderstood pours,  

Through this leftover life, enlarging, stretching, yearning to be lived

Released to count for the Kingdom’s sake.

Do I hope to see you again? No, I do not.

Will we meet again? Yes, by Grace given, we are assured

Eternal fellowship in perfect harmony

With each individual created and redeemed by Perfection

By Love Himself.

I will never again see the you that you were…

My cohort, the best part of me.

But I will remember. I will celebrate. I will rejoice.

And when I join, through that self-same portal, the one

You are, the you created in ages past by Love Himself

I will know you, and you will know me, as we are known.

Throughout all eternity. 

Therein lies my HOPE.