Birth Story
How it started vs how it's going.
I was born with blue lips two days late, gasping for light lost in the womb's warm umbilical grip. My limb-peripheral grasping onto our circular tomb. "We are given no signs from God; no prophets are left and none of us knows how long this will be." Resigned in faith, at night for the theft, we see how weak—we are strong.
Inspiration and Faith
The inspiration for this poem came from reading Psalm 74:9. The verse simultaneously struck me as a deep longing for more than this life, while being full of faith.
Even though the psalmist, Asaph, paints a picture of surface level hopelessness, it’s in a deeper context of faith because of where Psalm 74 goes.
[Even though] we are given no signs, from God, [even though] there’s no prophets left, and [even though] we don’t know how long this hardship or situation—life—will last, [we still have faith].
Even though all of those things may be true in the moment, we have faith in the one who owns the day and the night (Psalm 74:16).
Reflecting
In all, it made me reflect on my own life, and even the story of how I was born—two days late and with blue lips. That reflection led to the first stanza of this poem, part autobiographical, part fiction, part connecting to humanity as a whole.
The second stanza came from looking at how Psalm 74 was written—very poetic. I knew I wanted to quote the verse in a post after finishing the poem, but then I wanted to see if I could incorporate it into the poem itself. (Originally entitled “"Life Story”).
Getting the final lines added was not easy, going for the rhyme and also connecting the verse to the first stanza.
Finally, slant rhyming signs with resigned and rhyming left with theft got me to connect our wondering of how long “it” will be, to how Jesus will come back like a thief in the night. Even though He will come back when we least expect it, we’re full of faith that He will.
Psalm 74:9 NIV
We are given no signs from God; no prophets are left, and none of us knows how long this will be.
1 Thessalonians 5:2 NIV
for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.