Passing On

Painting © 2005, By Irene Pruitt

Passing On
(Romans 5:12-21)

“I think that I see the plan of God working here.”
said the old man, with a joyous outlook on this future grief.

We were never meant to float about life
in this endless turmoil and strife.

These bodies are not made for eternity.
There is life beyond this world
that our eyes cannot see.

This sickness and pain consumes our existence.

Until death makes us part this fruitless plain.
We simply have to die we cannot remain.
Eternity starts now and begins again in another domain.

Death is the great exit from this life to the next.

No one has died and lived to tell the tale,
except for the one beneath the veil.

We know not what awaits us at the end of our stride.
Yet we say with simplicity,
“If I do not see you again in this world. . .
I will see you on the other side.”

The old man continued:

“I think that I see the plan of God working here.”

“I think I see why it is we must pass on.”


© Robbie Pruitt

For Whom Does The Bell Toll?

"Olympia Mill Bell Tower Bell," Photo © 2009, By Robbie Pruitt

For Whom Does The Bell Toll?
(1 Corinthians 13:1)

The bell in the bell tower is engraved, “Trust in God.”
It rings every hour on the hour
And no one hears what it says.

It’s a lonely echoing ring
From a solemn bell.
A cold and metal thing.

“Trust in God! Trust in God! Trust in God!”
It resounds
In every ringing sound.

At every hour on the hour
The bell cries
From the bell tower.

But no one hears its ringing sound
For there isn’t a single ear to be found.

The pendulum comes to its resting place.
The bell sleeps
Only to be awakened by the clock's chase.

“The chiming of the hour is at my hands!” the clock yells.
“It’s time to sound your message!” says the time machine.

“Trust in God! Trust in God! Trust in God!” the bell cries.
But for one more time, one extra chime
Because the clock says so.

So he gives it the extra try, “Trust in God!”
But no one hears its message,
Only the lonely messenger,
And his lonely echoing ring.

And as the pendulum swings back slowly to its resting place
The bell ponders . . .
“I am just a cold metal thing with a fancy sounding ring,
A loud and flashy chime.”

“I’m just a lonely bell, in a lonely bell tower,
programmed for the same job at the same time,
every hour on the hour.”

So alone he sings to himself to pass the time
“Trust in God! Trust in God! Trust in God!”
“For there has to be more to my life than this to pass the time.”

“For whom does the bell toll?”


© Robbie Pruitt


"Olympia Mill Bell Tower Bell 2," Photo © 2009, By Robbie Pruitt

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal."

The New King James Version. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1982, S. 1 Co 13:1


John Donne
Meditation 17
Devotions upon Emergent Occasions

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee..."

From Collected Love Poems