SEE

For Judah, My Son
June 20, 2006
David Gunner Gundersen

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Dear Judah, Son, what do you see?
How do you think?  Who will you be?
What have your eyes, now six months old,
Been drinking in?  What have they told
Your little mind about this world?
What mysteries have been unfurled
Behind these deep and dark-brown eyes?
Who told you that there is surprise
And wonder underneath each thing
That God has made?  What made you bring
This blessed curiosity
Into the world?  What makes you see?

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What makes you think and feel and look
Into a hand, and see one nook
Wherein God’s glory, hiding, lies?
The things you see are not for wise
And noble men who have grown tame
Or learnéd men who play the game
Where knowledge is a stepping-stone.
Their knowledge languishes alone
Because it does not captivate
The soul.  And so it grows sedate
And tranquil and serene and calm.
It does no violence, is no balm.
It will not ever ask, “But how?”
It never has a furrowed brow.
It will not ever wonder “Why?”
It does not ever laugh or cry.

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I think that we forget to see
Until we see a child.  We
Who grow up tall and grow up fast
Forget to let the wonder last,
Forget our souls were made with wings,
Forget to stand in awe of things,
Forget there’s wonder in a hand,
Forget that God is great and grand.

We are not mesmerized by grace
Or sun or sky or form or face
We are not awed by blood or cross.
This is our pride.  This is our loss.

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Dear Judah, Son, what will you see?
How will you think?  Who will you be?
What will your eyes, when they are old,
Have seen?  What will the Lord have told
Your grown-up mind about this world?
What glories will have been unfurled
Behind your failing, dark-brown eyes?
Will you have learned there is surprise
And wonder underneath each thing
That God has made?  Will you still bring
A childlike curiosity
To everything?  Will you still see
More than you ever saw before?
Will you have trained your mind to soar
So far above what we see here?
Dear Judah, will you persevere
In seeking for the things on high?
Dear Son, will you have touched the sky?

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O Father, help my son to see.
Help him to learn.  Help him to be
The kind of man who seeks Your face
And knows Your love and weeps at grace.

Dear Father, open Judah’s eyes
In times to come.  Do not disguise
Your Son from mine.   Please show him how
To turn and trust and love and bow.

I beg you now, O Lord of grace:
Let Judah early seek Your face.
Dear God of sight, please hear my plea:
I want my son to always see.