The Path is Never Straight

I can still feel my fingers
at the keys, 
tapping out eternal warnings
to fellow thirteen year old
pilgrims on the OG 
messenger platforms
brains early in development
didn’t stop my confident assertions

I came at matters of belief
like a child soldier
lobbing theological grenades
in the name of 
love?

Thankfully, 
the turnings 
and conversions
birthed from the faces and spaces
that flipped my assumptions 
and judgments 
came divinely appointed
again and
again and 
again

The ones
the world calls lesser
whom Jesus calls blessed

kept bringing me home to the news
that God 
never wanted appeasement
or child soldiers
or fear-based ultimatums

Just mercy,
and love,
and embrace

Though I
shudder at times
to think of my youthful arrogance

I know this current me-in-progress
fingers at the keys, 
tapping out reflections
will appear immature
in my rearview mirror
twenty years from now

And even as
I look now at my own
children in development
I never want them to feel
ashamed of the winding path
they must walk 

to come home to the news
that God 
only ever looks
like mercy,
and love,
and embrace.