Lent, Day 14: Surrounded.

Today's reading: Mark 3:7-19

they pressed so close
with their enthusiasm
and their needs,
following,
reaching
aching to touch you
I wonder if the boat
even held them back?
how many splashed into the water
to get a last chance at grasping you
before you floated
out of reach?

were you thinking of them,
the clamoring crowds,
when you went off to the quiet mountain
and summoned just the twelve?
were you remembering
the suffocating throng
with their rampant pains
when you called your friends
to serve?

and were you thinking of them,
the twelve just joining your journey,
and of the suppers and sunrises ahead
for you all?
were you hoping to be
surrounded by them
all your days,
or were you comforted knowing
that you would be surrounding them
for all of theirs?