NAS Prompt 5   Peter, years later, receiving his last meal from a guard

 

The Guard says:  Here, (as he slams the bowl of over-aged olives down)

Your friends are telling people all around that you CHOSE the upside down cross.

You follow a dead fool and you choose like a fool.

 

I am much worse than a fool.

A fool at least stays true to one thought, crazy as it may be.

I was a cowardly liar — just once, but it haunts me forever.

 

The Guard says:  Yeah,  Marcus told us how you denied you knew him,

but we have you now.   You get to die the same pathetic death.

That’s going to prove something.  (snickering as he walks away from such a fool)

 

Thanks, God, for this food to quiet an empty stomach!    Why did I lie?

Jesus forgave me — he found ordinary guys, not a single prince amongst us,

watched us fail to listen,  watched us worry about who was first,

watched me lie 3 TIMES, He never lied to us, yet he gave me another chance.

How did he care enough to trust US to keep on teaching the world his better way?

How can I do this?   Oh, thanks for coming, Jesus!  You came to help me?  Of course.

 

By Nancy Ann Smith — an imaginary play of how it might have been.