Awoken by an unfamiliar noise,
I had the strangest dream of falling into the void.
I’m in the same place I was before,
Under the deck, surrounded by a scene of gore.
Ankle deep in bodies in the witch’s den.
Then I hear that curious noise again.
Last I remember, I wore a noose around my neck.
But here I stand, alive, unaware of how I made the trek.

I turn to see not myself, but Jesus hanging there.
It should have been me, my own sentence to bear.
Again, the clear note plays across my mind-scape,
My desire for her flees in its pure wake.
I’m lifted up, never again to be let down.
I am filth, but He places on my head a crown.
How can this be?
A peasant like me, has somehow become royalty.
I was living in a pit dug with my own hands,
The dirt under my nails makes clear, I am just a man.
Why waste Your time on me,
Surely You have a dozen better places to be?
I should have been forgotten,
In the process of anchoring myself to the bottom.
Yet You anchored Yourself to the cross.
Sacrificed Your body willingly, so I wouldn’t be lost.
And I pissed it all away.
Still, You are here for me in these dark days.
I clench my fist when I ought to hold Your hand.
Furrowed brow shows I still don’t understand.
Why is it so hard to just stick to the plan?

At this point, I am interrupted.
He silences my complaints and my confusion is stunted.
“We could talk for days about the ways you fall short.
Since time is all we have, we better abort.
This was never about you and your failures, you’re wrong.
I care too much to let you waste your breath on misguided songs.
Now let me refresh you, just like the morning dew.
It was always about Me and the different ways I say I love you.
My grace took your place on the noose.
With your feet on the ground, it was I who set you loose.
I know you’d like to blame the flames on a devilish fiend.
But your hands, not hers, smell of gasoline.
She will be dealt with differently and it’s not your concern.
Listen, those who hear what I say won’t have to burn.”

Halfway buried under rocks and dirt,
With Your own hand, You pulled me free of all this hurt.
Warmth had left my limbs, near the status of a corpse.
A cold grave my path, a predetermined course,
But the frost fled before Your much greater force.
Not a word can I say in my defense.
My spine should snap under weight so immense.
“My love is inseparable from your spirit.
You could run away for a lifetime and still be near it.
The holes in your shoes put the evidence on display.
Turn around and see Me standing there, raising you up from the clay.
The air you are breathing is a most precious gift.
Purchased with My blood, I alone bridged the rift.
As I was hanging there, the pain blocked out all except one thing.
My screams became a song, the notes were your name.
I wasn’t silent.
Sent in the hope that you wouldn’t be quiet.
Every sin seen or not, I already forgave.
My eternal song has overcome, leaving behind an empty grave.”

Still, it feels as though Your hands cover my eyes.
Peering through the wounds in Your palms, I see the truth reprise.
I’ve become accustomed to decrescendos, the scales that go down.
It seems my ears have forgotten how the high notes sound.
Though the waves threatened to force me into the rocks,
For not a second did my lifeline falter, You commanded the storm to stop.
Now I can run free without tripping over headstones.
The dead are like me, life restored to dormant bones.
“I’ve given you a new spirit and a new heart,” He said.
“Otherwise you’d be like the surrounding masses of the dead.
The work is done, but you are still transforming.
Changing the way you think and not ever conforming.
Don’t over complicate this life that you live.
Your mind is just in need of a new perspective.
Harken to My voice and it’s treasure you’ll find.
You lusted after others, but your heart was always Mine.
Come away with Me, since it’s life you’re truly seeking.
I’ll teach you to fly, and forget you were ever sinking.”

Ephesians 2:3-5
“Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”