Afraid of the dark

Afraid of the dark                                                                                               
 
Become as a child, said my Father –
(trusting my small, lost hand in His).
 
But as a child, my inner life was
far more brightly illumined than the outer
 
and I was afraid of the dark.  Trust of my Father,
or any other, I soon abandoned to rely solely
 
upon my own devices, probing the unknown
(when I had to) with intellect and imagination,
 
constant evaluation, each step measured
against my small, comfortable interior world.
 
Now I am invited by my Father into a realm
without boundaries, benchmarks, mileposts, 
 
where all my personal probes and safeguards fail
and once more I am a child paralyzed
 
with fear and bewilderment, warily
studying my Father’s outstretched hand.
 
O child of God, it’s not the unknown He offers,
merely the veiled and unremembered.