All Creation Groans
by Lori Hershberger
By the rivers of Babylon we watched and waited
While the sweeping river carried the sigh
Of our weeping far away to the sea,
And in the chains of our darkness we hung our laments
On the sighing willows in our valleys of dying
And let them carry the sound of our crying
Into the sky while we waited and watched for light.
We watched in the night, for the breaking of sight,
The healing of nations, the dawning of day.
And you came, softly piercing.
Quietly sweeping the darkness away.
Now we wait here again on the shores of our rivers—
Here we do weep, and our sorrows we keep
Pressed to our chest in the darkness of night,
Hoping, and waiting and longing for peace.
On the banks of the rivers,
The shores of our rivers,
The rivers that roll from the ruins of cities
Down to the restless sea.
Lori Hershberger lives in Mae Hong Son Province, Thailand, where she teaches EFL and dreams of traveling across the Salawin River into Burma. You can find her book, Dustbeams, on Amazon.
Artwork: Sonnenuntergang bei Passau an der Donau, Anton Hlavacek, 1842-1926