Why did he let me go away
beyond the sea and failing sky
to places cold and deep to stay
and wait upon his graceful eye?

You let me go and then refused
to let me get away from you.
You let me run and watched, amused —
as if you knew…as if you knew

the sea and distant country too.
This place that seemed so strange —
so cold, so blue, so out of range —
was also formed and shaped by you.

About the poem

I do not know what it says about me that two of my favorite Bible stories are about running away from God: Jonah and The Prodigal Son. It is a foolish thing to run from God. Where can we run? The psalmist says: “Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there” (Psalm 139:7-8, NRSV). In both of my favorite stories, the runner finds they cannot escape God’s love. The run to the sea, they run to the distant country. But God knows those places as well. If I go to the sea, you are there; if I go to the distant country, you are there.

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39, NRSV).