Word Dwells Richly

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Let the Word of God dwell in you richly. Col. 3:16

God's Word is rich buttery food
potatoes, steak, cream, honey.
It satiates, settles you down.
Restless hunger is gone.
You don't need to go scrounging
in the world's fridges
for cold leftovers any more.

Within you Word sprays light into secret places.
Penetrating beam picks out a box of thievery
hidden between piles of hurt,
a closet filled with tattered humiliation,
pride, bitterness,
a cesspool of unforgiveness,
a trunk of memories
corroded with shame, anger, regret.

Word-sword slits cartons
slashes piles
clears the closet
stirs up the sludge
cracks the lock.
Smell sickens
tears all over the place.
Heart-cleaning gets public:
ask forgiveness
write a letter
send a check.

Word is always with you now
the gurgling stream you hear
at each break in the traffic
a song singing inside you all day
a tension reliever that your left hand squeezes
while your right hand goes about life’s business.

Those Word-seeds must have found fertile soil
for you never saw such a plant in your garden before.
Smell its frangipani-fragrant blossoms.
See its fruit on sturdy boughs, ripen
under a hundred everyday suns.
Nothing in those hidden seed-germinating days
prepared you for this bounty –
how it spills over
onto family, paper boy, neighbor, boss
flows to orphans across oceans.
But why are you amazed?
For that is Word of God’s way
when it dwells richly.