Roses Through the Solar Spheres

Her body grew thin, not really her room,

Bound to the bed where the daylight moved,

Hands once steady, now worn and small,

Breathing slow at the edge of it all.

She feared in this life she had not been enough,

Measured by burdens and weather and love,

Questions like thorns in the chambers of night,

Waiting for roses to blanket her plight.

Then from love came bread and the wine,

Power divine for the last grand climb,

Given as fire, as strength for the road,

Given as Christ for the bearing of her loads.

There at the bed where the frail flesh lay,

Heaven drew near in the simplest way,

Cup to her lips and the broken bread,

Life for the living and strength for the dead.

And what looked like ending

Was not the end,

What looked like silence

Was heaven bent low again.

Now she rises, now she runs,

In a body remade beyond the sun,

No more fear and no more shame,

Christ has called her by her name.

Now she flies where the bright stars burn,

Past the fires no flesh could endure,

Roses streaming in her wake,

Joy like dawn wherever she breaks.

No longer confined to that last small bed,

No longer ruled by hospital dread,

Now she is learning the strength she wears,

Moving through supernovas like answered prayers.

Stronger and higher than old false thrones,

Greater than gods carved out of stone,

dead friends have gone there before her stand,

Greeting her now in that farther land.

And those still here who ache to see

Are held by the hope of what she has come to be,

For while her body in earth reposes,

Her soul moves bright with the roses.

And what we call absence

Is not far away,

In Christ the future

Has broken today.

Now she rises, now she runs,

In a body remade beyond the sun,

No more fear and no more shame,

Christ has called her by her name.

Now she flies through the solar spheres,

Leaving behind all mortal tears,

Roses streaming in her wake,

Joy like dawn wherever she breaks.

Outside of time in the risen One,

The end and beginning are held as one,

She does not wait in a cold unknown,

She lives in the light of the living Lord.

Mind set free and body made whole,

Glory pouring through spirit and soul,

Christ who fills all things with light

Holds her close in every stride.

And even now what we cannot see

Is nearer than breath, is truer than grief,

For in the wounds of the risen Christ

The future burns with present life.

Now she rises, now she sings,

Clothed in the strength of eternal beings,

No more frailty, no more night,

She is alive in the endless Light.

Now she soars where the heavens bloom,

Past every star and every tomb,

Roses blazing in her wake,

Love in every path she makes.

Now she laughs through infinity,

Healed in will and mind and body,

At His side in every stride,

Hidden in Christ, yet glorified.

And though we weep by the resting clay,

She is not lost and not far away,

For held in Christ beyond our sight,

She moves in joy through death to life.

Roses through the solar spheres,

No more sorrow, no more tears,

Held in the glory of the risen Son,

Her new life now has just begun.