The Dry Creek Bed
There was once a dry creek bed
Where the water seldom flowed
Where a prickly-pear cactus
With its barbed spines struggled to grow
I bent over and picked up some rocks
Slowly polished smooth by nature’s wind and rain
And looked in awe at God’s majesty
Spread across the desert plain
A man needs a guiding compass
With unchanging principles telling just how it should be
Someone to show him the way
To the path straight and free
I rested alongside an outcropping
The fragrance of the cactus blossoms filled the warm, dry air
In the southwest buzzards circled in a cloudless sky
Seeing a dead carcass, waiting for their share
A limb, broken, alone
Lie on the ground beside a bare, Desert Willow tree
I cut off its nail like thorns
Making a walking staff for me
A cactus wren sang its pretty song
Above a rattlesnake down on the warm, dry sod
I was the only man who heard the tune
And I thought of Moses and the staff of God
Then my memory turned to a preacher’s sermon
Heard long ago in my teenage days
Jesus is the way to life
So the words of the Bible say
So as the day ended
I reflected on where my life is at
On the outside, all seems right
While inside I’m living flat
Now a man needs a guiding compass
With unchanging principles telling just how it should be
Someone to show him the way
To the path straight and free
My soul was once a dry creek bed
Where the Living Water I rarely allowed to flow
Where without His Living Water
I frequently struggled to grow
He bent over and touched His child
My response He wanted to see
Wanting to share God’s loving majesty
Where His love’s waiting for me
Jimmie Aaron Kepler
2012
Jimmie Aaron Kepler’s work has appeared in six different Lifeway Christian publications as well as The Baptist Program, The Baptist Standard (ghostwriter), Thinking About Suicide.com, Poetry & Prose Magazine, vox poetica, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Bewildering Stories, Beyond Imagination Literary Magazine, WORDS..RHYMES..POETRY & PROSE, and more. His novels The Rebuilder and Miss Sarah’s Secret as well as Charlie’s Bells: A Short Story Anthology and the award-winning short story The Cup, and the short stories Invasion of the Prairie Dogs, Miracle at the Gibson Farm: A Christmas Story, The Paintings and poetry collection Gone Electric: A Poetry Collection are available on Amazon.com.
