Life is a waiting beside the pool of Bethesda,
Where the reeling crowds go by
Under the five porches of sense.
Life is a lying crippled
Beside the pool of deep longing,
Waiting for the water to unfold
Its white petals of healing,
Waiting for Someone to draw near and say: “Arise.”
This poem, inspired by John 5:1–9, appears in Therefore Choose Life by Edith Lovejoy Pierce (Harper and Brothers, 1947).
Image credit: Léon Spilliaert (Belgian, 1881–1946), The Bather, 1910, India ink and pastel on paper, Musée Modern Museum (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium), Brussels.
Art & Theology 