Tearfund: Lent Devotional - Easter Sunday

A tremor in the void

‘And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’ (Matthew 28:20)

A tremor in the void

It began with darkness, a tremor in the void,
the shadow of God moving silently
over the cowering deep.

It began with darkness, a serpent’s lie believed,
a temptation devoured,
a garden left behind.

It began with darkness, a people enslaved,
a murderer in exile,
the angel of death snatching a nation’s young.

It began with darkness, the terror of war,
the breaking of kings, invasion and oppression
and a God abandoned, then forgotten.

It began with darkness, a frightened mother
travelling a dusty road, a stable for a delivery room,
a desperate escape into a foreign land.

It began with darkness, the plotting of the pious,
the betrayal of a friend, an arrest in the night,
an unjust trial.

It began with darkness, an innocent man’s arm
forced against a wooden beam, iron nails driven through his
skin tendons ligaments bones

broken body hoisted high
the crowd jeering joking sneering spitting,
his mother, weeping.

It began with darkness,
an anguished cry, a spear thrust into flesh,
life pouring out, sky turning black.

It began with darkness, a tremor in the void,
the eyes of the anointed opening
in the cold heart of a tomb,

and then a voice:
‘Let there be light.’

Happy Easter from everyone at Tearfund.
May you know the reality of the risen Christ in your heart.
May Christ’s love, peace and hope rest upon you and your loved ones, now and always.

Gideon Heugh
Gideon writes for Tearfund and is a poet and environmentalist.
Poem is © Gideon Heugh, taken from Rumours of Light.