The Beam (Considering Ecclesiastes)

What is twisted cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted.

Ecclesiastes 1:15

The Beam

The world can be such a confusing place. Ever
consider the beam above this mad pen of wild men.
They ignore its measurement, straightening themselves without higher help.

The confused ones contemplate how they might altogether delete
difficult matters and circumstances that have arisen since The Creation.
I remember that alone human hands cannot straighten crookedness.
The Creator created and was happy with His love’s labor.
Although our self-centered strivings for perfection horrify Him,
He fills our hearts with goodness when we acknowledge Him.
Completely devoted to God we are enabled to ascend;
ascend to His thoughtful sayings above and about the beam.
He creates laws that proud men try to bend,
and we cannot make our own the laws of nature. 

Our inquisitive fingers meet tip-to-tip in thought.
In balls of fingers we contain and caress these thoughts;
thoughts of this created universe that somehow went awry. 
Let us consider the earth so covered with lost sheep: 

This plane is the atom-meet-atom substance that glorifies
God, who speaks at the core of the horizon.
We cling to Earth as if it held contentment’s answer.
As its soil vanishes, consider it all softly, and
say, “These matters appear to have a deeper, redeeming meaning. 
There is definitely an intelligent plan and glorious designer.” 

“Surely reason is behind it all; surely it is meaningful.”

All should bow before The Creator’s all-wise reign. 
The sun sets on truth, I cannot simply agree to 
disagree about these things or be halfhearted about them. 
It is the difference between eternal life and eternal death. 
And that includes all who long to grow into
a single tree with twisted roots among an identical forest.

Our souls and bellybuttons determine our human nature and birth.
Heaven brought us into being; the sky is witness –
or is it that important? It is so very important, 
for this recognizes a firm foundation given long ago.

A seesaw rocked in the long docks; it rested its
beam upon the stones of earth’s foundation. We see 
and we live it. It’s measuring the strengths and weaknesses 
of this dying wasteland. It is much too immense 
to ever be overburdened by our multiplying, motley horde. On
the up-side are the precepts given in the
first garden of paradise, and on the down-side are 
the matters refused on the up-side. But even 
the heavy herds of elephants moving in the dense foliage 
and floral vegetation aren’t enough to disturb the beam.   

We balance on the beam that only God’s hand straightens.
It dwells in the median of Heaven and Earth,
enjoying a holiness that we cannot fully experience until the end.

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Ben Plunkett

Greetings from the booming metropolis that is Pleasant View, Tennessee. I am a man of constant spiritual highs and spiritual lows. I pray that I serve God at my highest even when I am lowest.

Ben was a founding member of Rambling Ever On and a regular contributor and editor until his untimely death in April 2020.

We wrote a tribute to him, but the best tribute you can give him would be to read all the wonderful poems, short stories, book reviews, theological essays, and ridiculous satire pieces he wrote for us. Pass them on to others and maybe allow Ben to inspire you to write something yourself.

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