Life is a Poem by Rose McCormick Brandon

If you build your life on my words, said Jesus, you will be like a house built on a rock. When rains pour and rivers flood, your house won’t collapse. (My paraphrase of Matthew 7:24)

The Greek word Jesus used for the idea of building a life on His word is poieo. The English word poem comes from this. Poets use words in creative ways to build something original. 

“Be a poet,” Jesus is saying. “Take my words and build a life with them.” His words build solid foundations. His words decorate our lives and turn them into something beautiful. 

I met a pretty mother of two. She told how she’d been addicted to heroine, sold her body on city streets. Since childhood she had lived in constant rage. One rainy night, in the grizzly downtown core, she went berserk. Slashed her arms. Screamed like a mad person. An ambulance came and took her away. 

When I looked into her clear eyes, I couldn’t picture the wild person she used to be. "I was living in hell," she said. A hurricane had rushed in and flattened her life. In her agony she remembered Jesus loved her. A pattern of self-abuse would have continued had He not stepped in and turned her jumbled life into a poem. 

That awful night Jesus began to build a meaningful life in her because, as Corrie ten Boom said, “No darkness is so deep that Jesus is not deeper still.”

As long as there’s breath, it’s not too late for God to take a meaningless messy life and turn it into a beautiful poem. Build your life on the foundation of Christ’s words. 

“One well-chosen word at a time. One stanza of service at a time. And with our words and deeds, we can leave something beautiful behind in the lives of others.” Eugene H. Peterson.

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Rose McCormick Brandon writes biblical essays, devotionals and inspirational pieces. She is the grateful winner of several awards from The Word Guild. Her book, Promises of Home, is a collection of stories of Canada's British Home Children. Some of her writings are compiled in the book, One Good Word Makes all the Difference. Rose is married to Doug, the mother of three adult children and three (and another on the way) grandchildren. They live in Caledonia.