Wine and Roses
Even as you spent yourself on this ungrateful top
It had the gall to keep spinning
Flinging the ocean at skiffs and fishing towns
Upsetting boats and local economies
While cruelty crept across the human face
Like a shadow across a rock
And what with the sun beating down
Day after day
And the moon at night
Some took up the skeptic's cloak
And forged doubt into daggers
Meant only for the back
Of the One who found me
Hidden like Gideon's threshing floor
In want of shape and heat and light
And something called hope
And why the scandal I'll never know
When the door flung open
And I fled that room
To a hill of all places
Into the warmth of Divine embrace
Into the union of Maker and made
And the great great dance
Until helpless in your arms
I whispered, "Why me Lord—
The Prodigal's teacher—why this mercy?"
But I heard nothing
Except the sound of a calf falling
And me standing robed and speechless
Showered with wine and roses
Even as you spent yourself on this ungrateful top
It had the gall to keep spinning
Flinging the ocean at skiffs and fishing towns
Upsetting boats and local economies
While cruelty crept across the human face
Like a shadow across a rock
And what with the sun beating down
Day after day
And the moon at night
Some took up the skeptic's cloak
And forged doubt into daggers
Meant only for the back
Of the One who found me
Hidden like Gideon's threshing floor
In want of shape and heat and light
And something called hope
And why the scandal I'll never know
When the door flung open
And I fled that room
To a hill of all places
Into the warmth of Divine embrace
Into the union of Maker and made
And the great great dance
Until helpless in your arms
I whispered, "Why me Lord—
The Prodigal's teacher—why this mercy?"
But I heard nothing
Except the sound of a calf falling
And me standing robed and speechless
Showered with wine and roses