A Mother’s Prayer
Had I been Joseph’s mother — I’d have prayed,
protection from his brothers:
God, keep him safe; he is so young,
so different from the others.
Mercifully she never knew’
there would be slavery and prison, too.
Had I been Moses’ mother — I’d have wept,
to keep my little son;
Praying she might forget the babe
drawn from the water of the Nile,
Had I not kept him for her nursing him the while?
Was he not mine and she but Pharoah’s daughter?
Had I been Mary — Oh, had I been she,
I would have cried as never a mother cried,
Anything, O God, anything but crucified!
With such prayers importunate,
my finite wisdom would assail Infinite Wisdom;
God, how fortunate Infinite Wisdom should prevail!”
-From Ruth Bell Graham’s Collected Poems-
“To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father — to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen. (Revelation 1:5-6)