Poem August 6, 1966 Issue

CAPTIVE OUT OF ISRAEL

Estella Mayer MacBride

If we but knew more of that little maid!
She said, "I would to God my lord could be
In Israel; I know the leprosy
Would leave his flesh." How often had she prayed
Her lord were with the prophet! Unafraid
Was she to voice her faith; her ministry
To Naaman's wife held no resentment; she,
Taken in war, with loving thoughts repaid
Her Syrian captors. Surely she obeyed
Her mistress ever swiftly, lovingly;
And loving greatly, wished her captor free.
What power of unselfed love is here displayed!

We need not know her name, her age, her face:
We know her truly through her truth and grace.

Estella Mayer MacBride

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