If He Had Stayed
If He had stayed where tender, caring hands had put Him,
Wrapped around with linen and aromatic preparations,
Stayed enclosed in the cool, dark rock, to sleep on, decayed and forgotten,
while eternity rolled away into forever-ness.
If He had stayed imprisoned behind the Roman seal,
soon to be but another set of bones
added to the numberless skeletons bred of earth,
If He had stayed down where tradition laid His head,
done with sight, and touch, and voice;
Oh Beloved ! If He had stayed...excruciating contemplation!
Hopelessness behind doom ahead, no gathering here today.
Yet here we are, and it can't be said without enough power,
not by human voice anyway;
No, imagine it ringingly proclaimed by heaven's angelic hosts... ( He didn't stay )
He is risen !
poem by Audrey Yeager
"...and if Christ has not been raised , your faith is worthless; you are dead in your sins." I Corinthians 15:17
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable..." I Peter 1:3
