I can’t get in…I’ve lost the key!
I’m scanning, frantic, all around,
I’ve turned my pockets inside-out,
Searched handbag, but it can’t be found.
Without the key the door stays locked,
And I can’t open-up my home,
My heart beats in a panic…
Mouth goes dry…eyes filling up with woe.
I’m sure I had the key back when
My bones were young, and faith was fresh,
But since then, life has worn me down,
And now my brain’s a jumbled mess.
I used to be so certain
Of so many things, back in the day,
Feet planted on a righteous path,
Now I struggle, with rocks in the way.
So, was it then I lost the key?
Did I let it go when I fell down?
I remember thinking selfishly,
With bruised hope and a battered crown.
For rocks can make us stumble,
Twist our ankles and will stub our toes,
They’ll also get quite slippery
When they’re wet with troubled water’s flow.
I should have held on to the key
More tightly in these flailing times,
For now I feel most certain,
It got swept away in bitter brine.
‘though retrospect now shows me
That I never could have held this key,
For if I had, I would have clasped it
To my chest, most gratefully.
So, now I find I’ve been locked out,
Am standing, helpless, in the cold,
Oh, curse the exuberance of youth,
Which ebbed away as I grew old.
It’s too late for cruel hindsight now,
I’m lost, already in the dark,
‘though I see flames, there is no warmth,
Just pain within each tortured spark.
I didn’t have the precious key
In life, but shoved Him out of sight,
Didn’t treat Him with due reverence,
Didn’t praise Him as The Way and Light.
I should have fixed my eyes upon
Lord Jesus, not poor worldly things,
Then I wouldn’t be locked out of Heaven now,
Where I can’t hear the angels sing.
