You wanted justice, but there is none … only love.

This morning, I knelt down in the snow
in my favorite place to pray,
a little garden off the side of my porch,
now bare and stark,
where My Lady of Tears keeps her vigil.
And these were the words which came
to me like a prayer … or an answer to one:

You wanted justice, but there isn’t any.
There’s the world.
Cry for justice, and the stars
will stare until your eyes
sting.
Weep, and enormous winds
will thrash the water.
Cry in your sleep for your lost children, and snow
will fall … snow will fall.
You wanted justice, but there is none … only love.
God does not love. God is.
But we do. We love.
That’s the wonder.*

Wise words, I think, for one contemplating the end
of his world.

*paraphrased from Archibald MacLeish’s play, “J.B.”, a modern retelling of the story of Job