Poem: "His footprints"
This poem was prompted and sponsored by minor_architect, who wondered if Jesus walking on water might have changed the Sea of Galilee in some way. (Read a version of this miracle from the Bible in John 6:16-21.) I have always thought that Jesus must have come down as much for the world as for humankind, so this prompt got me wondering about what He might have said to the other part of his audience...
My rendition of Christianity is based on a very wide reading of history, mythology, and heretical as well as orthodox sources. While I do not subscribe to this cosmology myself, the mystic-Christian branches of it do intrigue me deeply, and that's where I'm writing from here. It is intended to explore possibilities, not to annoy people; but if you are very orthodox, you might wish to skip this poem.
His footprints
when Jesus walked on water,
it was never about the apostles
or the boat or the fish or the storms
it was always and only about the water,
about the Sea of Galilee itself,
about Jesus going down into the cupped hands
of the Earth to bless what was held there
as it had been made by His Father.
it was the waves who heard His sermon
as He whispered it to them while he walked,
explaining why the waters of the world
needed to be patient
with the sons of Adam
and the daughters of Eve,
that there would be a time for all lessons,
and that the waters were loved
no less than the men and the sparrows.
so the Sea of Galilee gave over
its tempest and the boatload of quivering apostles,
allowing Him to pull Peter to safety
and soothe their nervous fellows as they rowed away
and it thought,
as it carried them toward the distant shore
with its careful currents,
about what He had said to it:
that it is the slow and gentle strength of water
which makes its way through the hardest stone,
and so only patience and faith
can open a way through the soul.
these were the thoughts of the sea
as it watched the miracle unroll for its witnessing
and these are the thoughts that have remained
with it and within it down the long flow of years
ever since -- and it is quite certain,
as it lies dreaming under the pale round moon,
that it has not yet finished discovering
all that He said in that sermon.
even today, the Sea of Galilee remembers
the tender press of His warm bare feet
upon its trembling surface
as He carried the weight of the world
balanced on his slim brown shoulders
and it waits,
sighing as its waves finger the sand,
for His return.