Elizabeth
After a lifetime outcast as childless,
she gave home to one who should not
have been with child.
God—sheltered by humanity—first heard
welcome from two women proclaiming
over unborn children.
Still questioned by her kin, speaking her
child’s name, they called to confirm it
with her silenced husband.
Her boy “grew and became strong in spirit,
and was in the deserts till the day
of his manifestation.”
Wound in wilderness and bearing his
mother’s barrenness, he had learned
from her to wait, with his last breath,
for the greater one. Watching since
the womb, he decreased willingly
and died asking: “Is this, now,
God’s Kingdom?”
Even before her son, her heart knew of swords
and losses, and (even then) she returned
thanks and consolation.
She believed that God’s Kingdom was
for such as these, and she knows now
what His love has conquered.
Copious Flowers 