✞ Isolation, Illumination; a poem

In the desert of my longing,
where isolation felt like exile
my world reduced to pain that felt like punishment,
You were there,
the solace between my begging,
waiting for the moment
my heart would recognise who you were.

What I called emptiness,
was the chamber You prepared for revelation.
What I called abandonment,
was the place where all other voices fell away
so Yours could enter unencumbered.

You stepped into that stillness,
placed a hand on my wounds
with tenderness than bought me to my knees;
the presence that has followed me
through every trench of despair.

All my walking towards God,
years of meditation and surrender,
were braided with Your footsteps,
the loving companion
when I prayed through tears of desperation,
torn apart by heartache, by an illness that would not relent.

In every aching pull toward something
I could never quite articulate,
I found You reaching back,

Isolation; illumination—
I was never alone.

And I love You
with the same love
You stitched into my ribs
before I ever had a name.