In Memory of Jean Johnson
She loved us like the pieces of a puzzle,
Where each piece’s unique image and shape
Leave only one place it could possibly fit,
And care is required to find and vision needed
To see, just how the full picture is
formed,
When each piece is found and joined. As if
Examining each piece to find its
qualities,
She sought to know us, seeking with quiet
Devotion, seeing with ever care-filled eyes
How friendships and relationships, if held
Tightly, could flourish into beauty beyond
Any one of us, into the picture she saw
In each of us beyond ourselves, joined
To become all of us, children of the
living God,
The Body of Christ. It was as if God showed
her
The picture on the box, and she had
insight
Into a plan we couldn’t see. I’m not sure
If she did, though, but I know that is how
She made us feel: like we each were the
last
Piece, the special one that brings perfection
Into view in the wonder of God’s creation.
We each should feel blessed just to’ve been
held
If only for a moment in eyes that see us
like that
Because it helps, more than anything else could,
Us to see ourselves that way, too, freeing
us
To follow in her example and see the world
anew
In the picture she formed with us as her
life’s puzzle.
