She did it again,
stepping out from behind
my neatly ordered rank of shirts
at the back of the closet.
After giving me a moment to recover
she asked,
    "It would be odd, would it not,
    to read about your spouse
    but not to talk with him,
    to proclaim your love for him,
    but never actually hold him?"

"Yes, I suppose," I said,
braced for another uninvited insight.

She continued,
    "For years you embraced the Bible
    believing you embraced God,
    but you avoided God
    by doing the safer thing,
    shielding yourself from God,
    hiding behind the Bible.
    You were afraid, I believe,
    of actually, truly, fully
    being with God."

I knew better than to argue;
was wisdom every wrong?

    "You don't know God
    by knowing a book about God.
    You know God
    by knowing God."

I was about to ask how,
but she anticipated the question:
    "Put down the book.
    Open your eyes.
    Open you arms.
    Be still.
    Know."

Text and
image © 2013 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.