Rewrite {A Poem}

Is it too soon to call this year a total rewrite?

One, no, two new medical diagnoses,

Four new doctors,

One surgery down, one to go
For this year,

And now quarantine,

Plague,

Economic collapse?

Just like that,

The Editor bled red ink all over the pages of my calendar,

My plans for the year,

My hopes for the days to come.

While I grieve the changes,

The losses,

The 2 AM weight of new fears,

I acknowledge Your control of the molecules of my body,

The molecules of the air,

The movement of millions.

This could not have come unless You

Are actively orchestrating,

Editing,

Rewriting it for good

To your people,

Who love you and are called according to Your purpose.

I acknowledge that the days being rewritten

Are not being written out of Your plans.

All the days of my life were written in Your book

Before there was yet one.

You rewrote the poem of me from death to life

In Christ Jesus

To do the good works

You prepared ahead of time.

This total rewrite is the path

Of dying to my first draft

And embracing Yours.

If I knew

What You know

About the millions of things You are doing

In these months,

I would claim the gift You offer in this rewrite.

And You do offer a gift.

Do I dare to wait for it,

Watch for it,

Expect it,

Believe it?

A child at 99–

Rewrite.

A 430 year sojourn in a foreign land,

Descending from princes to slaves—

Rewrite.

Another 40-year delay for the deliverer's

Delivery,

Then plague upon plague

Until Your time was right—

Rewrite.

40 years of the not-so-scenic route

Through the wilderness

To the Promised Land—

Rewrite.

Divided kingdom,

Unanointed kings,

Unintended worship—

Rewrite.

Seven decades in Babylon—

Rewrite.

Return, rebuilding, restoration—

Rewrite.

A voice crying in the wilderness—

Rewrite.

A babe for a virgin—

Rewrite.

Messiah on a cross—

Rewrite.

Empty tomb—

Rewrite.

As hard as it is to lose the year I'd hoped to have

And the things which will never be the same

Normal

Again,

Here I am, Lord.

May this rewrite

Set me right

In plans and patterns

I didn't even know had gone wrong.

I trust You;

Help me trust You.