Believe This Love Still Lives

by Jan Richardson

From the moment

it first laid eyes

on you,

this blessing loved you.

This blessing

knew you

from the start.

It cannot explain how.

It just knows

that the first time

it sat down beside you,

it entered into a conversation

that had already been going on

forever.

Believe this conversation

has not stopped.

Believe this love

still lives —

the love that crossed

an impossible distance

to reach you,

to find you,

to take your face

into its hands

and bless you.

Believe this

does not end —

that the gesture,

once enacted,

endures.

Believe this love

goes on —

that it still

takes your face

into its hands,

that it presses

its forehead to yours

and it speaks to you

in undying words,

that it has never ceased

to gather your heart

into its heart.

Believe this blessing

abides.

Believe it goes with you

always.

Believe it knows you

still.