That I Would Know Him

Jessica Jang

I have been embraced by God

With soft sweet arms

And fiercely tender, open hands.

Mom’s fingers, not often manicured, Hold

tight to soothe innocence and fear, Heavy and

secure.

Dad’s hands, daily clasped white

knuckled, chapped and red.

Enveloped in praying,

Typing

Dish-washing

Blowing drying hair

Tickling

I have heard God’s glory

Waking to large blithe hymns on Saturday mornings. Dulcet keys

playing and bowls of steaming oatmeal A fragrant

offering,

Music, her chorus of rest, And

cooking, his verse of praise.


I have been taught truth from God,

Out of narrow bedroom hallways, in the glow of night lights. In her patient

words outside my slammed, sticker-covered door, Her refrain:

“I love you”

In anticipated bedtime stories and pretty pictures of a parted sea:

“Daddy, who’s Moses?”

These strongholds of affection so that I would come to know

The taste of both honeyed oats and tears

And the yearning of a victorious “The End” I could not yet read.

Even in my greenness,

Threads of assurance began their

Weaving through my instinctive worship,

For “Jesus loves me, this I know.”

That I would one day, too, have calloused hands and

Fingers, not often manicured,

To hold onto little ones,

The “little ones to Him belong.”