For Hannah

There is no “right” or “good” in "bad”, and it will e'er befall,

True evil always lurks about 'til it affects us all,

Yes, every life will have some pain; there is no place to hide,

The strongest man in calmest sea cannot withhold the tide.

The greatest sorrow we can know is when a child succumbs,

When she is taken from our arms the heart within us numbs,

And, we are left with grief and pain and tears which fill the soul,

With pieces ripped apart, like this, can we be ever whole?

Where is our God, as some may say, when this has taken place,

And, if not God who caused the ill it’s hard to see His face,

Remember, now, that Christ his Son once died upon the cross,

In all of this, God knows full well the meaning of our loss.

He grieves as we; He bears the pain and suffering in our time,

The Source of life can bear us up as up the hill we climb,

He wants the living to reach out to our full sorrowed friend,

To hug and hold, and let them know that this is not the end.

We cannot rush or hurry grief when night is deep and dark,

Yet, life and light illumines still beyond the clouds so stark,

And, joy will come, and hope remains, and love will still the strife,

For none are lost, in Christ alone, we’ll know eternal life!

Peter Lowell Paulson

October 6, 2017

In Memory of Hannah Nance (4 years old), niece of Anthony Paulson and Erin Rogers Paulson, who was recently lost in a house fire in Pocahontas, IL