DAVID…(Hebrew Scripture)

David…(Hebrew Scripture)

As a child, in the fields
your companions—sheep.
YOU sat in the sun staring at stones.

Without realizing it,
you meditated…you prayed
in a contemplative fashion
though you had no idea what it meant.

A mere lad…a poet in motion.
Like all young persons, you THOUGHT you understood
EVERYTHING, but you were growing.

You had no idea where life was leading,
how you were being called, led.
But you packed up a few stones and
placed them in your pouch.

Then, one day
it was YOU who would face the GIANT.
They fitted you for Battle—
put you in a uniform making you—
turning you—into a sledge hammer.
You did not know this way…
it did not ‘fit’ you.

You cast off the garments
they placed on your shoulders.

You turned back to
what was ‘simple.’
You turned back into stone—
and you let it FLY.

You defeated the giant before you.
You were a HERO
destined for greatness…
BUT you dropped the stone.

Your ‘head’ puffed up with pride.
You wore the gowns of a king…
You gave in.
You forgot…oh simple shepherd
how to be a stone.

Your hammer brought down armies.
You loved to conquer
and your costliest defeat—yourself!

You put a friend on the front line
to be ‘killed’ so you could possess
his companion, his wife.

Your sledge hammer broken…

You wept.

and Yahweh loved bringing you back to stone.
Jesus said, “Split wood, I am there. Lift up a rock, you will find me there.”
Gospel of Thomas