Green pastures
The past year has been marked by pandemic-related hardship and tragedy, but also by the resilience, hope, and light that have shone through in so many ways. “Whatever uptick or downturn, surge / or dark day,” our divine Shepherd is here to impart peace, safety, rest – that’s the promise this poem highlights, inspired by the “green pastures” imagery of the Bible’s 23rd Psalm.
It looks perfectly sheared, this
tender grass that stretches out
before me beginning to clothe
the earth, yet, in winter. Not even
frosty nights can stop it. Basking
in this fledgling green field, I felt
suddenly an unspent freshness
– a thriving this scene hints at –
sweep over me.
Soft urging of divine Love, gracious
Shepherd, God, leads me to lie down
in green pastures of spiritual reality
– to feel our God-given peace and
safety and rest. Leads me, leads all
of us, every moment – not coercively
but because of what we are: the exact
expression of Love’s boundless good.
Whatever uptick or downturn, surge
or dark day, our Shepherd’s care brims
with all that satisfies and tucks us into
Love’s pasture.
Reflecting on the “green pastures” of Psalm 23.
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