CRYSTAL CLEAR

When you realize how fragile life is, 
It all becomes crystal clear:
You are not in control.
It's really not yours to own. 

Though you fight, scream, claw, beg.
Even if you will it, pay to prolong it. 
In a snap, just like that, 
Bleep flattens, breath sits still.  
Once alive, now a corpse.
So true, we're dust to dust!

You may be the healthiest hunk.
The most gorgeous babe.
The busiest bee alive.
Smartest, richest, most disruptive problem-buster.
Even the most compassionate, heroic, ever serving dude.
Yet with a sneeze or a drool or a touch
Succumb! 
To a good-for-nothing infuriating virus.

Yes, a virus! 
Lowliest of the lowliest 
In the totem pole of pestilences.
Microbial yet deadly and deadlier still.
Sneezed, inhaled, touched, transferred 
From one unsuspecting human to another.

We who once thought ourselves masters of our fate,
Now at a loss for answers. 
Mighty, in control, able---now locking horns 
With a rampaging, conquering,
Knee-bending, microscopic beast.

But now we finally see it, 
As we hunker down, 
Gnaw at our fingernails
To wait wait wait wait,
Life is not what or how we perceive it.

We've never owned it.
We're someone else's!
The one who formed dust
And breathed upon it breath,
He gives and takes away. 

Yet see it all His way, 
Be amazed and be at ease.
At peace, comforted.
Because your Owner:
He's Creator, Master, Lord over all.
His name is Jesus Christ, Savior! 
Call Him, embrace Him, 
Trust Him with your very will and live!
He will respond.

Because He's not man that He should lie. 

He's the only Name
With power to reverse 
Our downward deadly course.
Make our feet stand on solid ground.
Unlike the slimy pit we waddle on,
Slippery, leading us down below. 

Jesus, the name to trust.
Immanuel, God with us.
Name above all names.
Above everything that's been named.
Above every pretender to His throne. 
Be it covid, cancer, lack, addiction, riches or fame.

And you know what? 
Life as we've lived it,
It's temporary anyway. 
Breath ceases, yet where He is,
Life sprouts anew. 

Free from decay, pain, hunger, cares.
Clothed in glory, our heavenly tent.
Because there, Our Lord Jesus reigns.
And with Him forever we'll be!