Even Here

Gentle me with your presence, shadow me,
O Saviour of the lost, beneath your wings.
How far from home I am and how alone
I feel. The darkness swallows all my screams.

But you who hear even the softest thud
a sparrow—dead—makes as it hits the earth
can hear me from this Jonah-like abyss,
for everyone who calls on you is heard.

Yes, each lost sheep, lost coin, lost son is found
at last, so give me patience in my fears,
and may I know the everlasting arms
around me, underneath me, even here—
gently, gently around me even here.

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(The line “for everyone who calls on you is heard” was inspired by Dallas Willard in The Divine Conspiracy: “You cannot call upon Jesus Christ or upon God and not be heard.”)