Cruciform

for Katherine Donovan

Come with me into the garden
I will sing a mystery
How a seed of fall and woe
Grew to become a healing tree

Garden dawn and fruit was sweet
But bitter bore the seed anon
Of that tree where good and evil's
Secrets whispered thereupon

Garden dusk received the seed
Cast down but watered by dawn's tears
That in time of deepest need
Another tree would heal the years

When the gardener came to pray
Bright drops of red fell where he knelt
He stooped and cleared the thorns away
And all their stinging sharpness felt

As his blood dropped to the earth
The seed awakened where it lay
Cruciform that healing tree
Which bloomed his resurrection day

+Steven Curtis Lance



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