Romans 5: 3-5…suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. (NRSV)

Undoing Disappointment

garment of

Pain

stretching tension

Between knotted lives

We knit

assiduously

Only

To be unraveled

Undone

Reassigned

become

Anew

Garment

Woven

Again

From divinity

At work in us

Endurance

At work in us

Hope

tugging us loose

Out of control

Losing

The stuff

We think we

Are made of

We fight

For every stitch

Slipping

Through us

Undoing disappointment

Cast off to the edge

Of

No

Thing

Then begins the labor

Of Spirit

the clothing

Of our souls

In love

Undone

Whole

Maker-

Made

Hope prepares the

Way

For

Love