March 7, 2008

My Journey to God

God’s Winter Treasury

High above is a close grey winter sky.
The brown leaves of the beeches still hang.
Most trees are barren of life-giving leaves,
Branches covered with ice where birds once sang.

The snowflakes float gently downward.
They are God’s blessing for us all.
Formed from water droplets high above,
God gave them symmetry and form as they fall.

No snowflakes are just like one another.
God wanted them to be that way.
He welded them together as in a blanket,
His gift of a white cathedral is for all to pray.

Under the blanket, all life slumbers deep.
The long winter night descends in cold splendor.
The cold winter moon forms patterns in the snow.
The winter wind blows sharp as a razor.

God’s power sends the great winds blowing,
Sending misty veils of snow swirling upward,
God’s might reflected in tree limbs snapping.
Lashing of ice pellets are like a sharp-edged shard.

God’s gift of winter is an infinite treasure of beauty,
A gift from Him that is both majesty and apostleship.
The storm tones die away, revealing tranquil silence.
His gift is beauty incarnate and a thing to worship.

By Thomas J. Rillo

(Thomas J. Rillo is a member of St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Bloomington and a Benedictine oblate of Saint Meinrad Archabbey in St. Meinrad. He said his inspiration for this poem came from “enduring the cold might of winter.”)

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