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A free-verse Lenten Meditation on Conversion

Nicodemus came to Jesus by night…(Jesus said) “One cannot see God’s kingdom without being born again.” Nicodemus said, “How can one be born after being old?” Jesus answered, “One cannot be in God’s kingdom without being born of water and Spirit…The Wind blows where it chooses…so, with one born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus asked, “How can these things be?” (John 3.2, 3, 4a, 5, 8a,c, 9; abridged and adapted)

The sun rises and night falls, heralding a new day

of new opportunity

for one (whether person or family, community or nation),

to become more whom God meant one to be.

How can new birth be, especially when one is inured in one’s history?

Ah, the ever-living Spirit –

as Wind blows, as Fire burns

not the fact, but the fetters of all past fault –

is the animating Agent of truest, surest Liberty.

How can this new birth not be?

Only when one chooses not to move by, for, in, through, with[1] the Spirit.

© 2023 PRA

Illustration: Nicodemus visits Jesus (c. 1886), James Tissot (1836-1902)

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[1] One of my life’s maxims: Whenever any and every preposition works (makes meaning), then I know that the word is true.