✞ 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,
a refuge,
waiting for the moment
my heart would recognise who you were.

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

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

All my walking towards God,
years of meditation and surrender,
were braided with Your footsteps,
my 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.