“Before Jesus”, Mother said, with serious ,somber eyes –
“Before Jesus”…and I knew this was no time for lies.
“What happened at your friends house?”
My eyes fell lower still.
I felt inadequate to say
The things we’d talked about that day –
No gauges helped me – (just a child
Who’d been protected all this while.)

“I saw a picture, Mother, but I looked before I knew
The figure in the telescope would be….nude…
I felt so bad, because, well…I laughed…not knowing what to do –
And Mother, I just couldn’t say a thing like that to you.
You said, ‘Be careful what you see –
Be careful what you hear –
Be careful of the paths you take;
The Lord is always near.’”

As I look back on yesteryear and those two solemn faces,
I think of all the time that’s passed,
The many traveled places!
I did not know that time would etch
This scene upon my mem’ry –
That I would pull it up again
After more than half a century.
It gives me clues of what we were-
A day of gentler living.

A day so different from this time –
Days of caring – giving.
Neighbors worried about neighbors
And took their cares to God,
Then put the muscle in their prayer
And helped them turn the sod.
A day when innocence was held
As if some hoarded treasure;
And everyone could comprehend
Its loss was beyond measure.

It can’t be given back again –
The damage won’t erase –
It was a thing you’d like to hold inside
Till you see Jesus’ face.
“Before Jesus” … How will it be?
For nations, creeds, humanity?
When nothing’s hidden, shadows gone,
Illumination exposes wrong –
And..we’ll be glad, remembering
The prayers we said to straighten things;
The guard we put before our way
Because we pledged again that day.
“Be ye holy, for I am holy “

Joan Clifton Costner jody@ptsi.net