To the moss, the ferns and the lichen,

To the light, filtering down through the bows of cedar, arms stretching like ladies curtseying,

Through fir trees, glinting off the taut wet muscle of the madronas

To you intricate repeated fractals of unfurling green reaching up, faces unwinding upward

Delicate fingers of lace arching out of the dark loamy soil in frenzied joy of unstoppable life

To the nurse log, breaking down in deep burgandys and chocolate browns, rejoicing in uplifting newness of life with each spindly sapling laughing in its youth, ecstatic to be showing up in a world of towering elders

To the chattering and flash of birds exultant in morning, and the robin whose simple song begins and ends each day, the beloved voice of a friend

To you lowly slug and beetle, churning life into death to once again spring into life

Ah, you, you all have been gift upon gift, cherished and dear

You surrounded me and enveloped me with your singing wonder,  your infinite arrays of green and beauty unspeakable, just mouth gaping, glee in the eyes

Before I knew God’s name, you made Him known to me

In you I knew, as certain as one knows anything, that there is another world

To you I am joyfully indebted to have been given such a taste of magic and mystery

To you I turn again and again

When my view constricts dark, brittle and slicing,

When my mouth gags and my heart and limbs grow faint

In the suffocating thick of pressing grief and howl of agony

You, you catch my sight

In your silent glory of perfectly aligned pricks of light in the sea urchin shell

In the absurd diversity of butterfly and bird

In the orbits of spinning electrons and infinite stars

There, in that one fern frond and crystalline structure of rock birthed in the womb of mountains

My muscles loosen, my neck lays back and I take in the whole of it all

A grin spread across my face and I am reminded that this is not all there is

This pain that threatens to undo me, tear me limb from limb and flatten every cell within me

The whole earth and the expanse of sky and universe call out, singing to my aching heart

Be not afraid! Do not lose heart!

There is a God behind it and through it and in it and before it

And HE is coming for you!  

Do you not see? Has HE not made it utterly known?

HE is the Ancient of Days

HE is the creator of all this wide world

and…

HE will be found by you

and…

HE is the God who turns dark into light

HE is the God who raises the dead

HE is the God who has promised you abundant life

And HE will do it!

So come join, sing, rejoice, call out with confidence, HE is my God!

He is my portion and I am His prize!

Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Oh my Soul!

Let me be singing when the evening comes!