“An Obscure Boy,” Liahona, January 2021, U16
An Obscure Boy
The author lives in Utah.
The Forces of Light and Dark, by Warren Luch, courtesy of Church History Museum
Mind heavy and full,
Yet hungry and yearning,
The promise of James fluttering in his breast,
He enters a cathedral of green,
A quiet place, a sacred space.
Tender and young like the new trees surrounding,
He kneels, makes bare his head,
And endeavors to speak.
But a darkness unbidden comes creeping,
Bruising fragile hope and binding the tongue.
Still, the soul that cries out with voice of its own
Clamors and shouts all the louder to heaven,
With faith, nothing wavering, in Him who delivers.
Instantly, fear and gloom are fled,
Chased by warmth brighter than the sun.
Oak and maple aflame, though nothing consumed,
A verdant chapel bathed in pure light.
The lad listens, heart quivering with the leaves of the wood,
To a voice that calls knowingly,
“Joseph!”