Behold the vital ingenuity

of grace -

incarnation’s gift,

love’s unearned favour,

offer tendered openly.

Fundamental purchase -

life’s blood

pouring down -

lien

against each human life.

Take the offer up,

freely given

without cost,

and the life bequeathed

timeless is.

Reject - and grace adjusts

to your choice, and

all its consequences

carries forth

to fit your will inviolate.

Fulcrum’s point Golgotha’s rock,

the teeter-totter of the cross,

the playground of your life,

no game is this,

which end you choose to sit.

Two thieves hung close by him

upon their wooden towers,

one, for hate the cynic was, condemned,

other, penitent received -

Paradise without the earning.

This no mythic story,

but Creator’s life impacted

by iron spikes,

that we might know

the cost of it.

Reality thus presented,

historic, demands attention

and response,

to truth-claims boundaried

by love and authenticity.