1 Seeing death and desecration;
natural hazards, human fate,
is this part of God’s creation?
Will the horror soon abate?
Through a feeling, more than reason,
just a glimpse of fleeting grace,
we will hold on, for a season,
to our damaged, limping faith.
2 Making sense of devastation,
human grief and mental pain,
moves us to the age-old question,
makes us plumb the depths again.
Who to blame and who to challenge?
Where is God amid the loss?
Where, when people have to scavenge,
is there meaning in a cross?
3 So we wait, belief in tatters;
struggle to retain our faith.
Every resolution shatters.
Certainties destroyed apace.
Yet we reach to sisters, brothers;
creeds, divisions turn to dust.
Now we feel at one with others;
enmity transformed to trust.
Andrew E. Pratt (born 1948)
© 2006 Stainer and Bell Ltd.
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