While cleaning off my "desktop"...

Now is the time of the year when I condense all of the random files that I have stored on lots of different computers over the course of teaching, rushing, printing, and grading of one school year. While in the process of waiting for files to move to the "Recycle Bin," I ran across a collection of poems from last year's English teacher. I thought this one was a good one...


He Passed the Test

Long before
most of the world's
recorded happenings happened,
Abraham
underwent
his Ordeal by Hope.

He believed God
to be faithful who promised
a seed (concept not viable)
a son (less
than knife-edge survival potential)
a land (one burial lot -
a life-time's total investment)
and descendants in such profusion
that
their number would rival
the stars!

Mixed up, yet
fiercely battling
circumstantial contradiction
awesomely, Abram/Abraham
became the friend of God.

His trusting, tortured endurance,
his strong argumentative prowess,
and finely-honed obedience
crashed through ancient harsh blood-ties
staking all on God keeping his word.

His never-swerving conviction:
THE ALMIGHTY IS, AND HE ANSWERS
prefigured to men's understanding
the God
who raises
the dead.

Abraham's faith has earned him
A posthumous decoration
'Reckoned by God as righteous.'

With inheritance rights for the children.

-Grace Westerduin