This little poem has a double inspiration.
My friend Gill sent me photographs of majestic oak trees in Richmond Park, waiting for Spring to burst open their new buds.
The other inspiration is Genesis 18 verses 1 – 8. Here Abraham also waited under the oaks of Mamre, for God to reveal to him the promise of new life and new purpose.
The poem includes another ‘waiting’; for those on a Lenten Pilgrimage to open their hearts afresh to God.
MAMRE
By the oaks of Mamre
Abraham sat in quiet contemplation
seeking solace in the heat of the day.
Waiting, though he knew not what for.
Expectation seemed to dust the winter tree over him.
Branches dormant, dead?
They waited too for a new life promised
by the whispering of God.
Abraham’s moment came.
Visited by the Three, he rose,
with hospitality bubbling in his heart,
receiving them as if they were God
– because they were God!
And us?
We wait too as the Three approach us
in quietness,
inviting us to open our Lenten hearts.
It’s different somehow for us.
Abraham fed God and received God’s promise.
God feeds us and, in the breeze of Mamre,
becomes the Promise.
Expect it!
Mr G. 16th March 2022
(inspired by Genesis 18: 1-3 & by Gill Henwood)
Mr G's Ponderings 