In The Ground

 

In The Ground

Robert L. Withers

December 7, 2020

 

Yesterday they put him in the ground.

I wasn’t there but I saw it.

I saw it the day before.

I saw it the day of…yesterday morning.

 

Yesterday morning I thought,

“Today they’re putting him in the ground.”

I saw his body in the box,

I saw the box lowered.

 

It was cold, I felt it.

The air, the body, the box.

Military honors…taps…

Can you hear the notes hanging in the air above the ground?

 

I know he isn’t there,

Not in the box, not in the body,

He ain’t there.

Why do I look for the living among the dead?

 

The angels marked “that one,” “that spot.”

“That one will be up again,” they said.

He is with our Lord, I know that.

But he ain’t with me, that’s the problem.

 

How did he get from Kensington, Maryland

To Fall Creek, Wisconsin?

His body was born in Maryland,

It was put in the ground in Wisconsin.

 

Was he born with an address label?

A routing slip that read,

“Destination Wisconsin”?

Was there an anticipated delivery date?

 

 

Why didn’t I know that our last conversation

Was our final conversation?

I was older on earth than he was,

Now he is older in heaven than I am.

 

Time collapses. He is a toddler,

A boy, a man, a husband,

A father, a grandpa,

A son of the Living God.

 

He is healthy, he is sick, he is more than sick.

Then he is healed before the Throne,

He radiates light,

Joy shines from his face.

 

 My brother the marathon runner

Has crossed the finish line.

It wasn’t the course he thought he’d run,

The finish line looked different than the photos.

 

But when the course changed,

His faith in Christ didn’t change.

They wrapped him in bandages those last few weeks,

They wrapped Christ in a burial shroud.

 

The tomb of Christ is empty,

He ain’t there, He done gone to live forever.

They put Jim’s body in the ground,

But Jim ain’t there either…he done gone to be with Christ.

 

But I’ll tell you what…I’ll tell you what to look for;

For a Day is coming when what has been put in the ground

Is coming out of that ground in a glory that defies imagination.

What was put in the ground, is coming up out of the ground!

 

O yes, that will be glory!