Like those who were present there in Troas
I, too, am "not a little comforted" 1
by what was granted
to the young man Eutychus.
For fancy dozing off the way he did!
Then tumbling, sensationally, from an upper room
while Paul—that eloquent mentor of theirs—
was pouring out to them before he left
all that he must have had to give
of counsel and encouragement
for the days ahead.
What a thing to have happen at such a time!
And how dire a warning to be drawn from it:
"Whoever is found
thus failing to attend—"
Judgment. Sentence.
And there, in a crumpled heap below ....
But this—this—isn't how it goes!
This isn't what we are told at all.
For he was come down to, that young man.
Embraced, not punished.
He was brought alive!
And all those others who were gathered in the house:
the strong, the steadfast, the wide-awake —
what a gladness,
what a wonderment
they must have known!
Beholding how a boy, fallen as he slept
(wearied by words too much for him?) could yet
be summoned by the Word itself:
and respond
come forth
as the very act
of what that night was all about.
