Loveful Pain

I saw a carpenter’s child with three spikes,
at play in his cross shadow on the floor,
unknowing of the pain as each spike strikes,
unknowing how the cross would bring on more.

How much, I wonder, did this child know
of all His suffering we have knowledge of?
Would He have loved His Father full of woe?
Did He already think of us with love?

We don’t know now what pain we must endure,
we know life brings its pain, endure we must,
to each God gives a cross we can be sure,
unknowing what, we pray, “In God we trust.”

Lord, let not my own suffering be in vain,
but, like You, offer all as loveful pain.

                     by Pete Voelz     10/19/13