And the last poem.
It's called "the God who loves you".
"It must be troubling for the God who
loves you to ponder how much happier you'd be today
had you been able to glimpse your many futures.
It must be painful for Him to watch you
on Friday evenings driving home from the office
content with your week, three fine houses
sold to deserving families, knowing
as He does exactly what would have
happened if you'd gone to your second choice for college.
Knowing the roommate you'd have been
allotted whose ardent opinions on painting and music
would have kindled in you a lifelong passion,
a life 30 points above the life you're
living on any scale of satisfaction
and every point a thorn in the side of the God who loves you.
You don't want that.
A large souled man like you who tries
to withhold from your wife the day's disappointments
so she can save her empathy for the children,
and would you want this God to compare your wife
with the woman you were destined to meet on the other campus?
It hurts you to think of him ranking the conversation you'd
have enjoyed over there higher in insight
than the conversation you're used to.
And think how this loving God would
feel knowing that the man next in line to your wife
would have pleased her more than you ever will,
even on your best days when you really try.
Can you sleep at night, believing a God like that
is pacing his cloudy bedroom?
Harrassed by alternatives, you're spared by ignorance.
The difference between what is and what could have been
will remain alive for Him even after you cease existing,
after you catch a chill running out in the snow for the morning
paper.
Losing 11 years that the God who loves you will feel
compelled to imagine scene by scene,
unless you come to the rescue by imagining Him no wise
than you are.
No God at all, only a friend, no closer than the actual friend
you made at college who you haven't written in months.
Sit down tonight and write him about the life
you can talk about with a claim to authority.
The life you witness, which for all you know
is a life you've chosen."
Thank you.
Will you please join us in the lobby for carrot cake?