My Sin Keeps Me Close

My sin keeps me close to my Savior.
There is nowhere to hide from his Love—
not in the night of my memory
nor the barren tree of some imagined future—
alone in a field after harvesttime
staring up at the grey-faced clouds.

Though I want to run far from his Presence
he finds me in the desert of my desires, then leads me out
stumbling over rasping sand dunes to the edge of the sea
where the clouds are reaching out to cover me
and the sky is waiting to wash me with water
stored from the beginning of time.


—Eric Nelson