wholly unholy

By Brett Zeck

Wholly unholy were my human hands when you took them into yours, pierced though piercing light into dark lands

Now what stitch must be at your side from the joyous laughter of new children despite a spear in your rib did deride

Oh, how all things work together — every thorn and trial and trembling — we are God’s children now, forever tethered

Yet this image bearer is an image seeker, hands marred red from the clay of Adam’s stain and wrestling with Eve’s grasp ever weaker

Carefully-knit creatures we are wonderfully made to laugh at the thought of betraying purest love — but for this treason in darkest tomb our Maker laid

Oh, what mind could fathom or heart ever embrace forgiveness sweeter than honey, heavier than gold! We are known by the Salvation bearing man’s face

This heart of stone and its edges cut my lungs

Every breath shamefully spent for a world’s false love

The deadly reach for the poison where fruit once hung

Yet now this tree is cut down, three nails and two beams crossing the barrier of the unwhole and Holy Death defeated for my unfaithful heart to redeem!

Oh, that you sought me, red and wretched and weeping, and to let me gaze upon your beauty all the days of my life

What sweet surprise: rags traded for the robes of a King