Each night before bed, my wife feeds our cat treats. Watching the two of them one night led me to meditate on how preposterous God’s plan seems at times—particularly the way He loves, cares for, and intervenes with us who couldn’t care less for Him much of the time. My mind wandered to Daniel chapter four where King Nebuchadnezzar goes mad and acts like a beast after failing to credit God for his accomplishments as king. After seven years of living in the wild, Nebuchadnezzar was (by God’s grace) able to acknowledge God, and his sanity returned.

These meditations eventually found their way into a poem I wrote called, “Preposterous,” which you can read below. I plan to include it in my third book of poems, which I am working on and hope to self-publish next year.

Preposterous

As my wife offers treats,
she tells our cat
Jesus loves her 
and will care for her.

St. Francis preached the gospel
to birds and other 
woodland creatures
he happened on.

Preposterous…

…and yet…

God finds each of us
in our madness,
scratching out an existence
in this world’s dirt
with fingers that curve like talons
around whatever we can get.

Jesus speaks until
we look up
and offer Him 
a more open hand,
which He takes and holds
until we are upright,
and sane,
and like Him,
which is to say

human.