I see the light that you shine at night.
When everyone sleeps you are up with fright.
To your window and against your better judgement,
You call onto the wind of change.

"Dear God,
do you have ears?
Can you hear me cry when I am scared?
Can you hear him yell and shake the house?
The pots and pans all thrown about?
What about the doors, the slamming doors,
does it not wake you from deep rest?
And my mother's cries when he lies....
can you not hear her need of terrored flight?
Our footsteps across the floor...
as he comes crashing through the door?
God, do you have ears?"

"Dear God,
do you have eyes?
Can you see my tears in the darkest skies?
Do you see us running from our home,
to jump in our car and battle alone?
What about the furniture that piles the walls?
Can you see that man drinking at the bars?
Can you see me when I hide?
Buried under the pillows when I hide my cries?
If you can see, Lord, what do you need to see?
To help us when we need you....
or are you blind?"

"Dear God,
do you feel?
Do you have hands like us, or are you real?
Do your fingertips touch our lips and hush us in goodnights?
Can you feel my heart beating when I am in fright?
Can you feel the emotion that terrorizes us so?
God, do you feel at all...
I have to know."

And eventually...

"Dear God,
I have grown. I no longer ask these questions...
because I already know.
It's time I give them to others.....
in times they fall so low."

And I answer:

Dear children,
I have ears.
I hear the cries that you pain me with...
but have no fear.
I am near.

Dear children,
I have eyes.
I see the mistakes that you are burdened with,
the horror that runs your home.
You are not alone.
For I hold your soul in sight.

Dear Children,
I can feel.
I have hands of time and yes...time may or may not heal.
I have fingertips that stretch upon your lips and
can bring you to a softer night of sleep.
Trust me, child...your soul I keep.

The nights you disown me by calling me out,
the questions you seek of me while you hate,
well, child....
I am here....and you are learning "strength".

I give to you the greatest gift of all...
and that is life.
That is to feel and to learn and to grow.
You learn strength through weakness.
Appreciation through hard times.
Although I am not your ears and your eyes,
your heart and your hands...
but with you...
and with faith...
together we have strength to move on.

I cannot fight your battles.
I cannot mend your heart.
I cannot kill the man, your enemy,
but I am giving you breath to live on.

We seek our journeys with reason.
We live on Earth for peace.
If not a reason through childhood,
then why do you stand up for the weak?

I give to you the "fight", the ability to "seek reason", to take your childhood and use it to guide.

Now I ask of you:
If I took the sight of your childhood away,
no longer able to see it happen...
can you still see the pain?

If I shield your ears from words,
if I covered them from any truths,
if I gave them to you when you grew....
how will that affect you?

If I held your hands and patted your back,
if I stood tall alongside,
if I protected you and hid you behind a door....
where in life is your fight?

I give reason to live.
We all have a story.
To each of us a memory
that could give us our glory.

Use that fight, that lesson learned....
and prove to me you heard.

God Bless life itself.