Poem: The Road Where He Walks Unseen

Inspired by Luke 24:13-35-the Road to Emmaus – a post-resurrection poem.

On the road where hope had thinned to thread,
and grief spoke louder than memory,
you came, unnoticed.

Not in lightning or triumph,
but in questions,
gentle, insistent,
opening the sealed rooms of the heart.

You walked our pace,
held our silence,
gathered our fragments of faith.

And when the day leaned into evening,
and we asked you to stay,
you took the bread,

and suddenly
absence broke into presence,
and loss into recognition.

Now every road is holy ground,
every table a threshold,
for you are always nearer
than we dare to believe.

And we walk still,
through ordinary days and hidden miles,
our eyes full of what is immediate,
our hearts slow to name what is eternal.

You are beside us in the unnoticed moment,
in conversations half-heard,
in the quiet ache we cannot explain,
yet we pass you by, unknowing.

How often we mistake your presence
for coincidence, your voice for our own thoughts,
your nearness for absence.

Still, something within us stirs,
a longing we cannot silence,
a hunger deeper than understanding,
a reaching toward a face not yet seen.

For every heart desires to know you,
to recognise the One who walks beside it,
to say at last, “It is you,
you have been with me all along.”

And what joy that moment will hold,
when sight is given to the searching soul,
when the stranger becomes the Saviour,
and the journey finds its meaning in you.

Then burning hearts will find their voice,
and broken stories will be gathered whole,
and every step will shine with grace
that had been there from the beginning.

Yet we remember, too, those who walk in shadow
whose eyes are dim with sorrow or fear,
who cannot yet see, cannot yet name
the hope that walks beside them.

For them we hold a quieter prayer:
that you would remain, even unrecognised;
that you would speak, even unheard;
that you would wait, even when unwelcomed.

Stay with them, Lord,
for the night is long in some hearts,
and the road feels endless.

And when the time is right,
take the bread again,
break through the silence,
and be known.

Until every road lead home,
and every eye is opened,
and every heart cries out in wonder:
The Lord is risen,
and he was with us all along.

Revd George Mwaura