Meditation

A Meditation on Rembrandt's Head of Christ

What he sees he takes in.

Every human sorrow

        fuels the fire that burns

        low and steady

        in his open heart.

He looked at the leper like this,

        imagining the man's life

        before he changed it.

He looked at the centurion and saw 

        what it must be for a father 

        to watch his child die.

He looked at the woman by the well,

        and saw her five husbands, and sent her home

        with a promise; at the woman caught

        in adultery, and did not condemn her;

        at the woman weeping at his feet - knowing

        she knew him, who walked the dusty earth 

        unrecognized - and honored her extravagance.

One might live long

        just to be looked at once this way,

        judged, forgiven, and blessed,

        taken in, recognized - a prayer answered

        in eyes that meet longing and assuage it;

"Lord, remember me

        when you come into your kingdom."

--Marilyn Chandler McEntyre - Drawn to the Light: Poems on Rembrandt's Religious Paintings (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003)

We used this poem as an opening prayer for our class one week and I wanted to share it.