The Faithful Promise

 Joel spent the next few years trying to find help, and was finally getting some treatment for his mental problems, although it wouldn't be until after we married in 2001 that he would finally get a confirmed diagnosis of schizophrenia. In the meantime, he spent countless hours reading and researching, trying to find help for himself, since the mental health system was not doing its job.

He wrote this poem several years before we met, looking to the future, when he might find the person he was meant to be with.


The Faithful Promise


When I was young, as I talked to God, I looked up at the sky

Counting the stars that He made as each night went by

 

Then as a man looking for mine, I found to my dismay

The star that God gave me was missing, and is to this day

 

A black spot in the heavens where it is supposed to be

I’ll feel incomplete till I find it, that star belongs to me

 

I ran crying to God and asked Him to help me in my plight

“My son, worry not, it will again shine for you by day and by night

I was the one who plucked your star from the skies

And gave it to a girl, you will know by the twinkle in her eyes.”

 

From that moment on I searched through the sea of countless faces

The closest under my nose and then in faraway places

 

One day I will find you – in faith I will know this to be true

God Himself promised us to each other, and no other will do.

 

~ by Joel Purkerson

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