Nearer to Thee
(For Holly and Jessica)
We feared to know, but had to know -
we saw what was to come.
Those children in the photograph
would not be coming home.
Hope ended when we heard the bleak
announcement on TV,
and someone sang the brave old hymn,
“Nearer my God to thee.”
Can you exist when malice lurks
throughout the world you made,
when every generation sees
how innocence will fade?
Each evil lessens all of us -
how could you let it be?
But grief fills churches - grief, and shame -
and brings us near to thee.
We search for meaning, finding none;
for hope, where hope has died.
Yet there’s a lesson we were taught
when Christ was crucified:
lives unforeclosed are beacons, bright
however dark the sea.
So take them, take them in their grace,
and hold them near to thee.
David Anthony
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