I Entertain a Doubt

He tentatively knocks at my door.
Come in, I say as I open my house to him.
I’ve been expecting you.
I invite him to the living room
but he says he prefers the kitchen;
the heart of your home he calls it.
He sits at the table while I make the coffee
and set out the morning-glory muffins
I’ve especially prepared. Then we talk.
Doctrines and disciplines, family history,
ethics, race—nothing is out of bounds.
We spar, debate, tell stories, and laugh
as the world comes apart in our words.
When we next meet, we’ll put it back
together, we say. In what seems no time,
he stands to leave. I walk him to the door.
I’ll be back, he says. I know you will, I reply.
I feel like I’ve made a friend.

 

No discernable answer

I was sitting by the window
reading my Bible,
struggling with belief
as Lot’s wife
turned into a pillar of salt,
when the light
of the rising sun bounced
off my iPad and threw a diamond
of fire on the wall.
It looked like a flaming tongue.
Is this a sign? I prayed.
Are you answering my need
with a Holy Spirit anointing?
But why a single tongue of fire?
O Lord, send a conflagration!
I discerned no immediate answer,
went back to waiting.
As the sun rose higher,
the diamond disappeared.