Unbelief

(in Mark, chapter 9)

 

My favorite story from the

Christian New Testament

Isn’t easy

 

A father brings his son

(a parent brings a child)

To Jesus, saying

A demon throws his son into

The fire or the water

Anything destructive, for

The demon wants

To kill the child

 

To the father, Jesus says

That with faith, the boy

Will be cured,

The demon itself thrown out

To which the father says,

I believe

Help my unbelief

 

He had been told what to do

What was pat, even a guarantee

But the father’s honesty

Precluded the code

He bravely and with broken heart

Told Jesus what was real

 

The crowd pressed in

There was no more time for

Conversation, not even for proof

Of faith

But what we know is that

Jesus healed the child

If there was a test

The father passed,

Though there wasn’t

And he didn’t

 

Was Jesus surprised?

Was the father?

What is authentic was not

Surprised

 

Faith will out

And doubt

They both had their turns

And they

 

And theys did well

They made healing

They made good

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash