Brotherhood

I wrote this sonnet last week during a church prayer time for racial reconciliation. The prayer guide specifically called out Romans 12:9: “Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” This got me spinning off into tangential thoughts about cultural differences, even within America. One of the disagreements Christians have is on the exact interaction between faith and culture. I believe that cultural diversity will be a part of the kingdom of Heaven, though of course I don’t know what it means exactly. I do believe that the number of people who reach Heaven and are grieved to learn they mistook their particular cultural expression for Biblical truth will be large. Anyway, this sonnet is about that day.

Brotherhood

Originally written September 13, 2020

This is the good I cling to: that one day,
When God’s great glory has been full revealed,
And all our ling’ring sins are washed away,
And all our deepest shame and wounds are healed,

We’ll look around in fellowship and joy
At all of Adam’s sons and daughters true
And in the face of every girl and boy,
We’ll feel the joy of EVERYTHING made new,

Yet still unique—such great diversity!
Our tongues and tribes and cultures, all reborn.
Free, then, to be ourselves—free finally,
No more too proud, no longer feeling scorned,

But there, still products of our place and time,
We’ll see each other and say, “Brothers—mine!”

Photo by Brandi Ibrao on Unsplash