YOUR BEAUTY (To my lovely wife Debra)

YOUR BEAUTY (To my lovely wife Debra)
by Jerome V. Bogan

You are the most beautiful woman in the world to me today.
You possess a beauty far beyond the beauty of an ordinary woman.
The emotion that you evoke in me when you are under the anointing
and in the fullness of your glory is like an encounter with a spirit.
Your holiness is your beauty, and you wear it non-judgmentally.
The beauty in you does not see the ugliness in me.
You have seen my faults, all of them, forgiven them one by one!
Your beauty is like that of a child; I want to hold you not as a man holds a wife,
But as a father holds a child who is wounded,
as a mother who carries her child to the altar for prayer!

Your tears are beautiful to me: When you cry I see rivers of compassion,
as though you have found some endless well!
You are filled with emotion and love, and pain and despair,
and I ache when you cry, and I feel your pain along with you,
Because I know your tears are for me, because I am the one who is lost and sick
and you are carrying me to the altar like a mother carries a child
and prays for her child to be healed, and i have come to love the tears
that you have shed for me, and the pain that you see in me, and feel for me;
For my pain is beautiful, and your tears for me are beautiful and you are beautiful.
And when I am able to feel again because your love has healed me,
I will cry for you and carry you to the altar of my soul;
and you will also be healed and you will finally receive your reward;
That for the love that you have given to me and to others, measure for measure,
So shall it be returned unto you.


(written 1990's exact date unknown)