“No more than dust,” said Abraham;
and yet, much more than dust are we.
The siblings of the great I Am,
we’re here to chart eternity.

Worlds without number He controls.
more than the sands, the earths He’s sown;
and though I’m one of countless souls,
I’m never, ever, left alone.

There is no pain He has not felt.
Though staggering the total be,
He thought of me that night He knelt
submissive in Gethsemane.

He notes the tiny sparrow’s fall.
He smiles each time I do what’s right.
When millions pray, He hears us all;
no thought escapes His perfect sight.

He’s there for me each time I kneel.
His love no power can impede.
Since time itself bows to His will,
He gives me all the time I need.

He helps me as I strive to play
as best I can the part He’s scored
for me, while others also pray
and join the music of our Lord.

He orchestrates our flawless strain,
His perfect symphony of life,
a symmetry of joy and pain,
a harmony of peace and strife.

Some play their part without delays.
Their melodies are promptly done.
A few short notes, years, months, or days,
some lives end having scarce begun,

while others play on loud and long.
Some linger, though they would not so.
In pain, they chant their drawn-out song,
while longing for their turn to go.

But He who notes each sparrow’s fall
is there as each soul learns his part.
The same who orchestrates it all
knows every note before we start.

Oh! So much more than dust are we.
One day we’ll leave this finite earth
and play the perfect melody
for which we here and now rehearse.

I’ll play my part as He has planned.
My will to His I humbly cede.
Because time yields to His command,
He’ll give me all the time I need.

Surely no question flies heavenward more often than “why me?” The greatest witness we have of our spiritual individuality as children of God is that life is never fair. Because each of us is unique in mortality, it stands to reason that we were also unique spiritual beings in our pre-mortal life, and it is likewise logical to assume that our individual uniqueness will continue forever in our immortal state. That same reasoning tells us that within the great plan of happiness, there must be as many individual plans of happiness as there are individuals. If we believe that God loves all of His children equally, we must also believe that life’s experience is precisely as God would have it be. Why is life so unfair? Because it must be to meet our individual needs. Our faith in a loving Heavenly Father decrees that the nature of our individual experience on earth, including the length of that experience, is so by design. Yet in spite of that faith, and in spite of our reasoning, we still ask the question. Reason has little power to console; only the Spirit can do that. Poetry can be a vehicle for spiritual understanding. The music metaphor I develop in this poem is nothing new, but my hope is that I present it in a way that is, and that it will help when faith and reasoning are not quite enough.