Sacred Charge

 

We cannot put it down and walk away

For this is not a novel or a bloom

Plucked as we see the birthing of a day

Bursting in radiance on earth’s living-room

To render its allowances of grace

Before night seals its mien to memory

No, no, the tender honor we embrace

Remains; from now until eternity

As we behold, in awe-struck reverence

The magnitude of its deliverance

We suffer through its valley of travail

And then, as heaven draws its gate ajar

Lending to humble arms, in infant wail

The wonderment of things holy and far

We thus accept, not gifts of trivial worth

To treasure or dispose of as we choose

But, from the hands of God to lowly earth

He sends a charge that we cannot refuse

Of uttermost importance from above

A miracle of hope and life and love

This divine dispensation of His joy

Is staggering and sweet beyond compare

From this day forth the moments we employ

Have been transformed to bear life’s dearest care

And we will never be the same again

As we accept our heaven-tenured lot

Life’s fondest pleasure is love’s deepest pain

To teach a child is to by God be taught

This sacred charge is unlike any other

A newborn cries and we become…

A mother

© Janet Martin

Sometimes the tender brief, yet eternal magnitude of it all steals my breath...there is no quitting, no dismissal from this bitter-sweetest charge.