The Word Fitly Spoken

A line drawn, softly penned,
Divining soul and spirit weighed
And words, yes words, but none could say
Which syllables were gently laid
At beginning or end
(John 8:6)

Long centuries before
Others saw the cloudy air
The moistened breath beneath the stair
Disturbed the silence golden fair
And rattled Tower’s core
(Genesis 11:1–4)

“Who goes?” The eyes glazed o’er
The lips like thunder rolling on
Their words like wind, and not rain-song
“Look out!” “What’s that?” Why carry on
With Babel anymore?
(Genesis 11:5–9)

Hands that to heaven reach
Will find their skyward steps retraced
And, openmouthed, the darkness chase
To see their demons eye to face
An otherworldly breach
(Romans 3:20, 28)

The writer, words unseen
He who their tongues had quickly rift
Was not content their souls to drift
Nor let tectonic sins to shift
His children from his mean
(1 Timothy 2:1–4)

Thus from above he came
Though born in blood to us below
The crimson flood for us to flow
That all the world might ever know
His revelation name
(Galatians 4:4–7)

Does he confuse? Not now
Though once before the Advent he
Divided tongues and clouded seas
To point us towards epiphany
The promise thus endow
(Galatians 3:23–29)

Demonic ties and sin,
You are exorcised by seeing
He who spoke the world to being
And redeemed by mercy freeing
All who live in him
(1 Corinthians 15:50–57)

Incarnate word, the Son
Sin’s deathly reign to break fore’er
By life, then death, then life to dare
To make me his own child and heir
Salvation freely won.
(1 Corinthians 15:16–26)