My Always by Jasmine Vickers

Hands washing dirty feet.
Mind swirling with accusations.
Heart beating with many sorrows.
Eyes weepy with the grief of humanity.

His back riddled with furrows of mangled flesh.
Thorns plummeting deep into valleys of his dark woolly hair.

Crowds that swarmed him with hate and rejection.
Requests for answers and healings in an endless procession.
His lungs gasping, collapsing,
Fighting for every gall-stained breath.
Piercings so putrid, so painful, so peeved,
Doubting Thomas could still trace their place.
Violently exposed,
His clothes stripped and ripped for gain.
The utter darkness, the sheer terror,
Of abandonment in suffering.
The only Good, now imperceptible, impenetrable.

The body that bore the brutality of sin.

Oh, the Blood of Jesus.

“For the joy set before him” (Hebrews 12:2, NIV),
He saw the cup and drank.
Drank until it was finished (John 19:30, NIV).

So if he does not save me from this earthly fire (Daniel 3:18, EASY),
My worship will resound for the world to hear.
For my Savior, my Friend, my King,
He gave his all, to be my always.

Jasmine Vickers is a public health scientist and a writer with a passion for exposing the beauty of Christ. She has co-authored three academic public health articles and published her dissertation on the needs of caregivers of older adults with cognitive impairment. She currently works as a postdoctoral fellow studying caregiver demands and decision-making to develop health promotion interventions and approaches to clinical care that will improve the health and wellbeing of older adults with cognitive impairment. She is a Detroit native that currently resides in Birmingham, Alabama. She enjoys knitting, crocheting, writing, photography, nature walks and sharing stories with older adults.