4.15.2017 RESURRECTION by Henry W. Frost

RESURRECTION
(written after seeing a butterfly in a garden)
                                                                         
and so thou hast burst forth from place of death,
with slender body and with radiant wing,
wast thou made suddenly by God's sweet breath,
enshrouded as thou wast, thou beauteous thing!
out of dark nothingness,
this shadowy world to bless,
with seven-hued colors bright
like ray of glory-light?
who could have thought on yesterday,
when thou didst lie like sodden clay,
that, in thy wrapped-up, dark cocoon,
there should have happened, and so soon,
this miracle of life and light?
as well imagine darksome night
could suddenly be day!-
what, goest thou away,
and higher up,
from buttercup,
to white rose on the lifted stem?
thou lookest like a flashing gem
held fast at snow-white throat; only thy wings
do pulsate in the very joy of things,
and show thou art not dead, as once before,
e'er God had opened wide the fast-closed door
which held thy radiance in- thou wondrous thing,
thou restless insect with the quivering wing! -
what, art thou not content
with thine environment?
must leave the snow-white rose
to be the joy of those
who, by their birth,
love lower earth?
dost fly to higher trees
where hum the busy bees,
seeking their honeyed dower
from newly bloss'ming flower?
there, weary insect, take they rest,
and dip they dark-hued, breathing breast
in the bright calyx where the fruit will be
when the same Hand hath wrought that fashioned thee;
now, thou dost glow with light;
no one could think that night
once wrapped thee round
as one close-bound;
thou dost with sunlight gleam
as if thou wert its beam,
thyself the very light:  -
what now? another flight,
still higher up? another flight,
still higher up? wilt mount so high
that thou wilt touch the azure sky?
where art thou now? - I only see
a faint-winged, throbbing flash of thee,
as thou art merged in seven-fold ray
of the fair gleaming, glittering day:;-
Ah, thou art wholly gone;
thou didst to heaven belong,
God made thee for the skies,
so thou didst heavenward rise:
Good-bye,
bright butterfly!
I too, a worm, shall turn to clay;
but I shall follow thee one day,
thou happy thing,
thou radiant insect with the outspread wing!
Henry W. Frost

what I mean, my brothers, is this: flesh and blood
can never possess the kingdom of God, and the
perishable cannot possess immortality.
Listen! I will unfold a mystery: we shall not all die,
but we shall all be changed in a flash, in a twinkling
of an eye, at the last trumpet-call. for the trumpet
will sound and and the dead will rise immortal, and
we shall be changed. this perishable being must be
clothed with the imperishable, and what is mortal
must be clothed with immortality, then the saying
of Scripture will come true: 'Death is swallowed
up; victory is won! 'O Death, where is your victory?
O Death, where is your sting? the sting of death is
sin, and sin gains its power from the law; but, God
be praised, He gives us the victory through our
Lord Jesus Christ. I Corinthians 15.50-57