Jonah 1:1-3 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.

Out of the depths of unapproachable light
Came the Word to Galilee’s Jonah who
Begrudgingly waited in Gath-Hepher’s night,
And hearing, arose–off in fantasy flew.
Descending in a run to Joppa’s bustling quay,
He trolled the tugs of resentment’s satisfaction.
Boarded and stowed sleeping sadness away
When Reality presses in piercing diffraction.
The Light punched in darkness; Peace brought the storm;
No tactful backing, no escape, only through–
Till the castaway’s will is tossed overboard
And washed by the flood, untwisted, made true.
Awash in the sea God’s messenger drowns.
The only way out is in, the only the way up, down.

(c) Randy Edwards
artwork: Peter Paul Rubens