Safe now

They're safe now Lord, those we've loved and lost
But yet we cry and still we try to count the cost
All those times we took for granted
How we wish that we had counted
Every precious sixty seconds
Way too late we learn life's lessons

Those we've loved and lost now feel no pain
The agony is ours who here on earth remain
The tears flow unchecked, and checked they flow again
Our wounds will weep to speak of that which words cannot explain.

They're safe now Lord, those we've loved and lost
And so are we, if only we could see
beyond this poor reflection of all that lies in wait
When we too leave this earth - this temporary state
and fly with all the angels, and dance on ageless limbs
On glancing heaven's glory, this poor tired earth grows dim.

Those we've loved and lost now know no tears
It's us who grieve and mourn their unlived years
An anguish that proclaims unspoken fears
Our heart cries out in ways that no-one hears.

They're safe now Lord, those we've loved and lost
and love remains and memories we keep
and those we feel have disappeared forever
are simply out of sight and now at peace
We see them not upon our own horizon
But mortal eyesight fails and dims with age
and on a distant shore they will be welcomed
eternal life begins, another page, 
the completion of this journey, the ending of a chapter
brings pages yet unread by us and frees us from the captor - 

that we call life.  It's all we've known,
frail bodies into which we've grown
are temporary dwellings, inside is the treasure
beyond understanding, beyond our measure
If only we'd grasp that life's ending brings more
and death's not the future, it's only a door.

They're safe now Lord, those we've loved and lost
And in our pain, our anger, disbelief
reach out and reassure us in our grief
that just as you embrace us in our pain
You also hold the one for whom we cry
and somehow they are not so far away
for they- and we - are nurtured Lord by You
You hold my hand, and yet you hold theirs too.

Karen Holmes
24th February 2005

(Inspired by my Uncles "promotion to glory"  and the numbness expressed by others in pain.  The loss, the anger, disbelief, the feeling that nothing will ever be the right or whole again and yet the need to go on living.  The sense of Christian certainty that this life is not all - that we are promised more - mixed in with the anguish.  The sense that those we've lost are only a breath away, just beyond our present sight, our present horizon.

"Victory is assured to those who believe".  Dedicated to Dave, because the memories live on, as does the sadness.)