I Want To Be Like You, God

I want to be like you, God

But please don’t let it hurt

I want to love like you, God.

But please, not with grief.

I want to count your worlds without number,

And serve mighty missions in your name,

I’ll promise to be humbler,

I’ll learn about your grace,

But please don’t let it hurt, God

When the mighty missions fail

And numbers will not stay in a mortal mind so frail.

Don’t let my mind be clouded – not with fear,

Not ever with pain

Don’t let the monsters take me in my nightmares

In the shower, when the coldness creeps

Up my spine.

Don’t let me remember the worst.

The child in my hands, crumbling –

The father outside my closet, coming –

Please don’t let it hurt, God

Please, let me forget, God

Please, let it go numb, God –

"I love you," God whispers.

Okay.

Thy will be done, God.

Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him:

On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him:

But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

- Job 23: 8-10