John 11:35

I remember when Bible verses had rewards attached,

back in my Sunday School days at the Elm Street Baptist Church,

back home, much younger then, naive, when we received pins

for the number of Bible verses we memorized, and little banners

to attach below for more verses memorized, said aloud

to the class and our Sunday School teacher, applauded and lauded.

We’d scour our King James for the popular verses, John 3:16, “For God

so loved …” and the 23^rd Psalm, fearing “not the valley

of the shadow of death,” and the easier ones when we needed one more

for the next banner, John 11: 35, “Jesus wept.”

I misplaced those pins a long time ago, but from pictures,

I had quite a long chain of banners to show. Not sure how many

of those verses I still remember, not word for word, anyway,

but maybe a phrase that pops into my head when I need it,

or just randomly, like tonight, that short verse in John, “Jesus

wept,” wept for Lazarus, his beloved friend, four days dead,

and his sisters, Mary and Martha, “groaning in his spirit”

a very human Jesus, virgin born, son of God, crying

for the death of a friend, grieving, his love broken,

“groaning in himself,” a verse I remembered today,

rewarded once by a shiny pin on my Sunday suit,

rewarded now by a faith that says, “Lazarus, come forth,”

a faith believing in the humanity of Jesus,

in the humanness of God, grieving,

hope for a troubled world calling out.