Prayer of Elihu

by Rachelle Nord

Forgive my youth, its ignorance.
I am a fetus within Your womb of knowledge and understanding.
My zeal all too often feeds

from the hand of assumption and judgment,
rather than Your Word.

 

Who am I...who am I?
A grain of sand in Your mind, oh God.
I am among the many waves crashing against the shores of time.
My breath is forgotten by the kingdoms climbing towards their end.
My bones are a garden, unkempt.
My heart, returns to the earth.

 

Let me remember Your Son,
that HIS blood, alone, eradicates my sentence,
that His cross rectifies my loss,
His sacrifice separates me from man,
His resurrection inscribes for me a new name:
one not written upon the grave, but upon eternity.

 

He is the Eternal Stone I am written upon,
a grave not damned, but lifted up.
Rather than take part with the dust from which I came,
I will partake of Heaven.

 

Rather than return to rot, I will be a pillar in Your house, oh Father.
Rather than dwell with forgotteness,
I will dwell in Your kingdom...
forever and ever.

 

It is Christ, alone, who distinguishes my life and my death.
for who am I?
who am I amongst the greatest or the lowly?

 

I am not even a star...
I am no snowflake...
I am no ocean.

 

I, in my SELF am a part of the same compost heap: flesh toiling.
I was not there when you conceived the light and the darkness.
I was not present when You made them separate

and called them by name.

 

I was not there when You breathed colour and sound into existence.
I was not there when you loosed the wind from its place of mystery.
I was not present when Moses beheld Your face

nor when Elijah reigned down Your fire.

 

I was not there when Rome was born, a mighty power, nor when it

fell to ashes in Your Hand.
I do not know the names of all the rocks, nor what they whisper of
I do not know the age of the skies, nor the secrets they keep.

 

I do not know the faces of my ancestors, ,

or whether they knew You.
I do not know the hearts of my children or where they will roam.
I am feeble...in my SELF.

 

A moment is precious to me, because it is tangible and it is given
without condition.
My breath is valuable to me,
because it testifies that I still remain;

I continue to endure the unknown.

 

I am small...
a child concealed by Your Son's shadow..
I am a thousand countless faces in one...
crying out.
My heart belongs to the depths of wonder

from which you conceived me.
so..who am I ..to ask ..to BE...
righteous...
or to say "I know"?

Your Son IS my righteousness,

a countenance that will endure into my old age.
Your Son is ALL answers to ALL things.
Your son is THE Truth, and as Paul uttered:
'Christ is all I know'
this is all I know
and will ever know.

Blessed be the God of grace and of mercy,

who remembers the grave and the
heart which inquires of Him..
Amen.

 

copyright 2005 Rachelle Nord