Cleopas

I cannot stop the words
That tumble from my lips
I cannot slow my heartbeat
It jumps, it leaps, it skips

To think my homeward journey
Began with heavy tread
To think my heart was aching
With tears I could not shed

I thought my hopes so fragile
My faith so newly found
Lay broken into fragments
And scattered on the ground

The man I chose to follow
Lay cold within his grave
Gone was my Messiah
The One who came to save

A hand upon my shoulder
Awoke me from my thought
My company along the road
Is what the stranger sought

How could I not have known him?
How blind I must have been!
I listened to his words
And a fire burned within

He opened up the scriptures
The things prophets said
About his broken body
And why his blood was shed.

Oh yes, I was a fool
That I had not believed
Could never have imagined
The plan that God conceived

As we neared Emmaus
I asked that he would stay
I suddenly began to fear
That he might go away

Giving thanks and breaking
The bread held in his hand
At last my eyes were opened
To all that God had planned

What joy that He has risen!
The sting of death - no more!
What praise, what adoration
Before his throne I'll pour!

(c) Melanie Kerr 2005