Lenten Sonnet | March 4, 2017—Andrew Peterson
"O God of Heaven, hear my prayer..."
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In addition to being the founder of the Rabbit Room, Andrew Peterson is a singer, songwriter, poet, and the author of the popular children’s series, The Wingfeather Saga.
This poem is part of a series of sonnets for Lent.
Lenten Sonnet | March 4, 2017
by Andrew Peterson
O God of Heaven, hear my prayer, I pray: Bless the ones who believe they don’t believe, Who cannot rest their minds at close of day, Whose clouding doubts go so long unrelieved, Then rain a thousand fears on fields of clay. Whisper, while they sleep, a story of grace That when they wake they might see the green play Of new life in cracked ground, the interlace Of shoot and bud and stem as leaf unfolds To cast cool shade beneath the blaze of day, Till all the unbelief a cold heart holds Bolts, withers, turns to seed and breaks away, Scatters skyward and drifts as the warm wind blows To good earth where root dives and feeds the rose.
“Bless the ones who believe they don’t believe.” This echoes my prayers of late and gives a brisk wind to my exhausted back. Thank you.
Andrew, thank you. This prayer was for me, and God has answered it many times over. I appreciate so much all the remarkable biblical images of grace in this poem—particularly the Root out of parched ground, which I’ll be taking with me today with all its hope and consolation.