"You Never Knew"

You never knew...
How dark was my night;
When you extinguished a torch held too long and crushed childhood dreams.

You never knew...
How disappointed I was in you;
When I had grown a little and gained self respect, but a moment's flirtation at an inappropriate moment surprised and annoyed me.

You never knew...
How proud I was of you;
When you had willingly contemplated a much harder path for a divine purpose, even though it seemedto my mortal mind to be a waste of temporal material.

You never knew...
How happy I was for you;
When in backing down from the most extreme aspect of that path, you carved out a new road for yourself, filled with hope and promise of future blessing.

You'll never know...
How I have watched from a distance;
Your harsh struggles with the brokenness that has accompanied those blessings, you have come to be respected in my eyes.

Until that Day before Almighty God to whom all thoughts are open, all desires known and from whom no secrets are hidden, when we all know fully - even as we are fully known...

You'll never know.