From a First-Time Visitor
Sitting here,
I gaze upon familiar faces,
Their countenance radiant with joy,
Like flowers greeting the morning sun.
Is this what they call joy in the house of the Lord?
They laugh as though no burden weighs them down,
They sit at ease, as though no pressure surrounds them,
They pass the time as though the world has no demands,
As though life itself has given them permission to rest.
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How fascinating this is!
Never in my life have I seen people so relaxed,
So free from fear,
So untouched by worry,
With no trembling in their voices
And no shadows of anxiety in their eyes.
What have they seen?
What have they touched?
What have they encountered?
Is it glory that surrounds them,
Or am I the one who has lost my way?
I walk among them like a wandering soul,
A stranger in the midst of familiarity,
Watching, wondering, trying to understand
Who they are,
What they are,
And what it is that makes them so different from me.
There is something about these people.
Something beautiful, something beyond explanation.
Their celebration is unmatched,
Their joy feels genuine,
And their faces shine with a peace
I have never known.
Oh, how I long to be one of them!
To belong to this family,
To find a home among these people,
To laugh as they laugh,
To live as they live,
And to possess the joy that seems to flow so freely among them.
But who will tell me what to do?
Who will show me the way?
What must I find,
What must I know,
What must I become
To experience what they have found?
Who will answer the questions of my heart?
For as I sit here, watching them rejoice,
One question echoes deep within my soul:
What is it that they have found in the house of the Lord
That I am yet to discover?
