Pilgrimage

It must have been a deathly dark

In that wilderness called home

For there were no lamps to light the path

Of the desert place they roamed 

 

As the land they had to leave behind

Now faded from their view

They mumbled, grumbled, and complained

What are we going to do? 

 

Then God called Moses to the mount

And gave to him a plan

To show His chosen what to do

And told them they must stand

 

For good and not for evil

For God and God alone

He gave plans for a dwelling place

So that He would have a home 

 

When he came down to guide them

In His glory and His power

And he led them with the cloud by day

And by night a pillar of fire 

 

So they brought the spoils of Egypt

And they built as God designed

And he gave a lowly carpenter

A gift from God Divine 

 

The ability to oversee

This heavenly creation

An earthly home for the Great I Am

From which He would lead the nation 

 

Once a year the high priest came

Into the Father’s place

To offer a blood sacrifice

This was Atonement Day 

 

For only by the blood

Of one spotless sacrifice

Were the sins of man forgiven

By the Holy God Most High

 

So they wandered through the wilderness

For forty years and then

God gave them His permission

To take the Promised Land

 

And over many centuries

God’s chosen people knew

That what the Father promised

He would surely do 

 

Then one night while shepherds watched

The sky was filled with joy

As the angels rang out welcome

For a Holy Baby Boy 

 

Who would grow to be a carpenter

A gift from God Divine

The Holy Tabernacle

Who was sent by God’s design

 

Because the Father loves us

He sent His only son

To complete the tabernacle work

All sacrifices done 

 

For you see God’s son named Jesus

Hung upon a wooden cross

And He looked through time to see us

Wretched, broken, vile, and lost 

 

And with angels standing ready

To free Christ from that tree

God the Father turned His face

So our sin He would not see 

 

With salvation’s work completed

As the sacrifice lay slain

The last Atonement Day was over

Only grace would now remain 

 

For the sacrifice was not consumed

But rose to live again

Now He is seated by His Father

He’s my Savior, Brother, Friend 

 

So when all of life surrounds me

With its sadness and its pain

I lift my eyes toward heaven

And my heart begins to sing

 

For I’ve seen a glimpse of glory

And I know my God is real

There is nothing that can touch me

That’s beyond my Father’s will

 

©Joyce Powell