Silas in the Sixteenth

Silas in the Sixteenth



Europe

The sound of it

Was so exciting

And Paul my companion

Words in his dream

Still ringing

" Come over

And help us"

The voyage aboard

Carried us on

Prancing

Turquoise steeds

To harbour

And to women praying

And to Lydia's welcome

All seemed good.

But now the dark corridors

And chains

And reproach

And groans of

Unseen hopeless men

Not fortuitous apparently

To challenge

Local superstitions.

Our room is reached

One filthy dripping

Wall lamp

Casts shadows

Not light

And manacles

Bind these arms

Meant to reach out

With the help of Christ.

“Why” is the big question

But my friend

Sits over there

Smiling...

He's smiling!

Our eyes connect

As he begins

The dear old hymn

With all the wind

And joy of a spring morning

I can only join in

And strange melodies

Percolate

From other rooms down

Those corridors

Next a horrible rumbling

But Paul continues

The lyrics speaking

Of a God without limits

Floors buckle

Walls shake and crack

Men howl out their shock

Earthquake

In Philippi

Constraints all removed.

That day the mission began

In earnest

The jailer was first

And his family

Humbled

And inquiring

Who was this Christ

Who broke walls?

Not with stones hurled

But with songs

And unquenchable Love?


(Acts 16)