We come—our lives brim-full with
laughter and longing,
delight and dread,
fear and fury.
Whether effervescent, elated, exuberant, exultant,
or hunger-haunted, hurt-hollowed,
we are expectant with a question:
“Will I be met with wrath,
or wrapped in warmest welcome?”
Hesitant yet hopeful,
restless with reticence,
dreading rejection,
craving connection,
we hold high these broken hands,
lift our voices with whispers and wails.
Our very reluctance has readied us to remember:
This hoping for whole is holy.
This holding on is being held.
Un-hiding our hearts is being hidden in You.
Hymn and howl,
whisper and wail,
call for help and cry of hallelujah—
all stretch the soul heavenward
to sing or sigh today’s “hosanna”
to the only One who saves.
According to this Vines’ Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words as posted on Blue Letter Bible, “hosanna,” in the Hebrew, means “save, we pray.” The word seems to have become an utterance of praise rather than of prayer, though originally, probably, a cry for help.
Anne Pharr can’t remember a time when she wasn’t putting her thoughts and feelings into writing–a tribute to one college professor’s mantra that “writing is an act of discovery.” Married for over 20 years and mother to two teenagers, Anne enjoys encouraging her students at a local community college to cultivate their own writing abilities, to value literature’s ability to deepen our understanding of others, and to know that our world desperately needs the gifts and perspectives only they can offer. She is never *not* longing for more time to read, to write, and to have un-rushed conversations with friends–not necessarily in that order. Her writing appears at Intervarsity’s The Well and on her blog, shadowwonder