Heavy Thought

by Gordon Klopfenstein

This came to me while I was writing to my wife’s brother to tell him of her terminal illness.

A heavy thought is on my mind
And to my others makes me blind.
The things I know that thought have made.
The things I don’t make me afraid.
I see my hopes and dreams all smashed
My ‘best laid schemes’ are being dashed.
I see my children’s empty faces.
I see my soul with empty places.
I see a body suffer pain.
A heavy thought consumes my brain.

But I must learn from God’s own son
The thoughts that from his mind have come:
That life was made—not just for me,
That I can’t live it wantonly.
My broken love can never end it.
My Faith, His love will help me bend it
And make my heavy thought no weight
But a stepping stone to something great.
My God, I ask no more of thee
But let this make a man of me.