Blindfolds and Michigan – A Poem

If the members of the Michigan Conference
Executive Committee
Could be blindfolded
And transported somehow,
Unseeing,
Across time and space;
If they could land,
Unwittingly,
In the center of La Sierra University’s campus—
Hole Memorial Auditorium
On a Saturday evening in June:
Commencement Concert
Graduating students—
Sacred song and string—
Perhaps…
Perhaps
Tears twice would overrun their eyes—
The first time as
Melodies,
As if on swallows’ wings
Wheeling on summer evening updrafts,
Rolling across the rafters
Pierced their uncovered ears
With the gravitas of pie Jesu;
As the words
“It Is Well,”
“Abide With Me,”
“Great Is Thy Faithfulness,”
Drilled deep into the marrow
Of their souls—
Perhaps they would weep
At the agonizing beauty
And the second time as,
Hearing the words, “La Sierra University,”
They removed their blindfolds
Expecting to see
“Apostates”
To use their own words,
But saw instead
Απόστολοι—Apostles
And then struck with the realization
They had been drawn into worship
In this Nazareth
From which they had assumed
No good thing could come
Perhaps they would weep again.
What is needed in this day
Is not teleportation—
Or even tears—
But rather
Someone to remove
The blindfolds.
Jared Wright is a member of the 2010 graduating class of La Sierra University
and recipient of the President’s Award for Outstanding Graduate Student.