Poem for All Saints and All Souls Day

There is a place
There is a place prepared for little children,
those we once lived for, those we deeply mourn,
those who from play, from learning and from laughter
too soon were torn.

There is a place where hands which held ours tightly
now are released beyond all hurt and fear,
healed by that love which also feels our sorrow,
tear after tear.

There is a place where all the lost potential
yields its full promise, finds its lost intent;
silenced no more, young voices echo freely
as they were meant.

There is a place where God will hear our questions,
suffer our anger, share our speechless grief.
gently repair the innocence of loving
and of belief.

Jesus, who bids us be like little children,
shields those our arms are yearning to embrace.
God will ensure that all are reunited;
there is a place.

John Bell b. 1949

This is a season of remembering. This week we remember the saints and all
those who have died. When we worship, either alone or with others, we join with
them, with angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven.

This hymn was written in response to the shooting tragedy at Dunblane Primary
School in 1996, when 16 children and a teacher were killed. John Bell, who wrote
both words and music, is a Church of Scotland minister and member of the Iona
Community.

“There is a place,” he says: not only our Father’s house, the place
that Jesus said he was going to prepare for us when we die, but the place is
wherever/whenever we meet with God here and now.

You will find this hymn in the Church of Scotland’ s “Church Hymnary.”
You can listen to it sung on YouTube.

-Tina Lamb