He Stretched Out His Hands

By L.M. Shearer

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He stretched out his hands to receive the whole world
And everything met at the point of his suffering
And everything was in him and by him and through him

There hung the world’s light on the brink of extinction
Pushed to the edge of exhaustion
The sun shrank in despair at the light leaving

In truth the whole world in his anguish trembled
As once the young world unshapen
Waited in dark for the word spoken

Now in the dark again, the voice shaking
Now in the darkened room a veil tearing
Women and men raised their eyes weeping

He stretched out his hands to receive the wide firmament
Heaven and earth met where his side was bleeding
The only divide was the wound gaping.

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L.M. Shearer is a high school and Sunday school teacher from the beautiful Pacific Northwest, USA. She volunteers as a Court Appointed Special Advocate, studies theology in her spare time and has occasionally written poems on post-it notes at work.

Shearer's other work on Foreshadow:
The Revelation of John (Poetry, October 2024)