June 9th

“Even if you are exiled to the ends of the world, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will bring you back.” Deuteronomy 30:4

if the world would cast us
adrift on a paper boat headed
toward that place marked
‘here be dragons,’
still
God would find us,
using that whisper carried
back on the sighs of our souls
to find the route to us,
with that wearied trust
of a shepherd who knows
the individual voice of every sheep.
even if the powerful
grinds our hearts into dust
that they put in a container
shipped to some grace-forsaken spot,
still
God will never give up
coming to gather us,
singing us home with
lullabies as soft as mercy,
with kisses as certain
as the stars coming
out at night.

© 2025 Thom M. Shuman

Venmo: @Thom-Shuman