New
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See I am doing a new thing! Now springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making away in the wildness and streams in the wasteland.
Isaiah 43:18-19 (NIV)
New
The shouts were unintelligible,
The tone unmistakeable
Words fired at speed,
Hard-edged as flint,
Tearing like shrapnel,
Accusation exploding around her.
Surrounded by hatred
She cowered under the the onslaught
As the baying rage of powerful men rained down,
A prelude to the stoning of an adulterer
Demanded by the law.
But the barrage abated,
Terror subsided
As she heard the dull thud
Of stones discarded,
At the retreating footsteps of her would-be judges
She dared to lift her head
And saw him, stooped, writing in the sand.
Her accusers had gone.
Just the two of them now.
Such stillness.
Dust settled
Air cleared
And she knew,
Even before he had spoken,
Her darkness had passed
And all was made new.
Chris Matthews