How Far

You have no idea how long it has been.
You moved here fifteen years ago
and it was a ruin then. A burned-down
wreck of a building.

You explored it of course. It is what you do,
explore ruins. Delve into the wreckage
to see what might be found
and what might be saved,

There was little left that first time
you climbed through the ashy wreckage.
Everything pillaged, salvaged, or left
to the weather and time.

It is amazing how much is the same today.
Ruins, it appears, stay ruined unless
someone saves them, as you were once saved.
by those with more vision than you yourself possessed.

If they had not, this place would be your portrait.
Beyond saving.
Instead, it is a reminder of how far you have come,
by whose grace, and how far, blessed and restored,

you have yet to go.

About this poem

A poem of gratitude. A poem of brokenness. By the time you hit my age, you’ve often had lots of both.

Tom