Krateo

While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s…
(Acts 3:11)

Why cling?
Fear, perhaps. The crowd, after all,
lunged and lurched about,
amazed hands raised,
indignant, astonished;
how might this seem
to eyes which had beheld, rejected,
hands which had held and seized.
Too much too soon;
the world had not the ready hearts
it took to take such miracles to heart…
Clung, perhaps, to wait out the storm,
to see how would the crowd change shape,
and crowd and cloud the truth around him.
Clung, perhaps, for refuge.

Or did he cling as we must cling?
Cling as those before had failed.
Every day, the servant said,
I stood and taught, and never did
you seize me then. The failure spoke
much more than all their loud deeds could:
to behold, daily, yet not take hold,
to have in reach, yet never clutch,
to see open hands, yet never grip.

Now the servant’s servants stood
and he must cling – for life, for safety –
all this – yes –
yet also
joy: at strength in deadened limbs;
and power: for greater things would soon be done;
and trust: above all, trust. The Crucified
had power still!
No silver, no gold in hand; only the Name.
And to that Name        he clung.