What Shall I Say? By: Gerhard Emanuel Frost

What Shall I Say?

By: Gerhard Emanuel Frost

What shall I say when they come,

my sister, my brother in distress,

I who am mortal, and so fallible too?

Shall I say

“Take a trip to the Grand Tetons,

stop by their snow-fed streams,

drink like a breast-fed babe

and try to taste God”?

Or,

“Hold a puppy in your lap

and stroke its silken ears”?

No, not these footnotes,

grace-filled as they may be.

I’ll invite them to the

Headline – the Name:

“Jesus-Emmanuel (God with us)!

Whisper it, shout it, pray it.

Yes, cry it, cry out against it,

you must, but test it,

taste it, experience how true it is,

how tough and how tender.

Yes, come to him!”

That’s what I’ll say.

Frost comments about this poem:

“We can find no answers to our most tormenting questions. We know so little about life or death. But we have a refuge in Emmanuel. And we can share this haven with our friends.

“We walk as children in a dark and strange room. We can’t see our way around the corners or the obstacles, but we sense a presence. God’s hand holds ours, and he has confided in us. He has told us his intimate everyday name – Emmanuel.”