If only by the gentle touch

Or merest shaping of a smile,

To prove the tender heart we claim.

Expressionless our love will die.

Faith, to be faith should be expressed

In actions of the daily toil

Of serving, yet becoming meek

In lowly suffering with that faith.

Expressionless our faith will die.

Forgiveness too should be expressed

In reconciling action which

Will bind once separated lives

In unity and fellowship.

Expressionless, forgiveness dies.

Hope, to be hope should be expressed

In looks of cheerful optimism

That even in despair sustain

The wearied soul near overcome.

Expressionless, our hope will die.

Thoughts will be thoughts and words are words.

Did these alone suffice to tell

A doubting world that God was there?

Why then this Galilean man

Expressing now that God is God?

Written while convalescing from an illness, largely precipitated by inter-personal staff difficulties at Chikankata

April 1976