Open the Roof in Me

A prayer-poem inspired by Mark 2:1-12

Yongsung Kim, Jesus Healing the Crippled

Author’s Note:
I know it’s been a while, but I’ve been busy navigating the chaos of the classroom. I’m back with a prayer-poem that sums up the internal, spiritual work that’s been happening, inspired by Mark 2:1-12. It’s titled “Open the Roof in Me.” I hope it speaks to you.
—Garrett

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Holy Presence,
i’m the crowded house again—
thresholds jammed with noise,
rules piled at the door,
oughts stacked like furniture.

open the roof in me.
let grace come through as dust and daylight,
unexpected, unapproved, undeniable.

see the faith i can’t always feel—
in the ones who carry me when i’m too tired,
in the ones i carry though my hands ache.
call me child before i’ve earned it.
speak release over the debts i still rehearse.

quiet the scribes inside my chest,
those careful keepers of no.
teach my tongue the easier word,
and my body the costly one.

say it again over me: rise.
put the mat back on my shoulder—
not as a shame, but as a story.
send me home to the ordinary rooms
where mercy belongs and doors swing wide.

and when we say, “we’ve never seen anything like this,”
let it be because we loved like you—
on earth,
today.

amen.

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