16*
Monday 16 December
Jonah’s Song of Thanksgiving
By Heather Boyd
Jonah 2
I ran away from you, my God, instead of east, turned west
I couldn’t follow through your plan, the weight of your request
Although your voice was clear and calm, I feared the confrontation
It takes a man of greater nerve, to voice God’s condemnation.
A working boat was my retreat, I would not be detected
Even God would leave me now, his mandate redirected
But down below I failed to find the peace I had once known
In hiding, I had lost myself and lost the warmth of home
The storm that grew and groaned and gripped, became a portent sign
That somebody aboard the ship had overstayed their time
I heard myself agree to be the sacrificial lamb
To face the waters wild and free, to face the great I AM
And now I find myself within a spaceI’d not expected
Dark and damp I lie here cramped, yet strangely not dejected
In fact my spirit sings a song, from nowhere words appear
For God has plumbed the depths for me, and strangely he is here
Were I to die within this frame, I would not be afraid
For faith has taken hold of me, God’s hand on me has stayed
Although I turned my back and fled, and thought that I could hide
My detour just derailed my faith, and fear intensified.
But now I know that I am saved, and God has intervened
There is no place where God is not, no story unredeemed
This whale is now a fecund place, where light and darkness dance
Where I am washed and tumble dried, anddealt a second chance
Whatever your own ‘whale’ might be, whatever your escape
God does not leave you on your own, he could not let you break
So sing a song of praise today, inside your holding place
And wait like Jonah in the dark, God’s crucible of grace.
Jonah 2
Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying,
‘I called to the Lord out of my distress, and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.
You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows passed over me.
Then I said, “I am driven away from your sight;
how shall I look again upon your holy temple?”
The waters closed in over me;
the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped around my head
at the roots of the mountains.
I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me for ever;
yet you brought up my life from the Pit, O Lord my God.
As my life was ebbing away, I remembered the Lord;
and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.
Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty.
But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
Deliverance belongs to the Lord!’
Then the Lord spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land.
