JORDAN SANCHEZ

Let the light fall,¹
Fall on fallen faces,
Hidden in the shadow of scorn and scars,
Pricked and prodded,²
Scorched and singed.

What is the world I’ve woken up to?
Where is Eden on this side of Heaven?³
Where the clouds of fluff hold rain and respite?
Not snoke and dust.
Where they float away with time,
Not frozen in place in a
Perpetual taste of gray.
Where may the children run
Towards the light of your face?⁴
The warmth of your presence?⁵
The stillness of your peace?⁶
It’s everlasting,⁷
(Like) how a sunrise should be
And always feels.
Embedded in place forever.

So let the light fall on our open hands.
Sun spilling from between bent knuckles
Like grains of sand.
I can’t contain it,
But there is no fear,⁸
Only abundance
	Of safety, of security.⁹
	Of knowing there will always be
	Enough light for me.¹⁰

So let the light fall from open mouths.
Kept promises from wisdom and love
Stream like a river of
Living water.¹¹
Wells never run dry in Eden,
So they shouldn’t run dry here,
Only east of it.¹²

So let the light fall.
Let it flow and follow the trails
Of commissioned feet and fossilized footprints.¹³
In the pillows of soil and sand,
The dust I was made from.¹⁴
Billowing in clouds,
Glowing with fullness, and light,
And love, and hope.

Let the light fall.
Let it pour from eyes the color of the Earth.
Nourishment found in the faces around me
Because all I want to see,
All I’ve ever wanted to see,
All I was created to see
Is light.¹⁵
So let it fall.
Let it pour like rain,
Immediate and direct,
With an announcement of thunder and horns,
Or no warning like a summer shower’s immediacy.
Leaving drops on the window,
Saturating all in its path.
Lingering on the street
	And workplace
	And playground
When it stops:
A promise of return, and return it will.¹⁶
	It must.

We are to be a place
A people of peace.
(Where) the roads are paved with it.
No shadows because the sun shines deep and hot,
Illuminating every cold crack and crevice.¹⁷
And every scene is not a source,
But a reflection.¹⁸

The light will fall.¹⁶
And when it does,
When it finally does.
Open my eyes.
Let me be truly able to see
Eden right in front of me.¹⁹
Let me cling to goodness,²⁰
Knuckles white,
Because we’ve lived far from it before.
Lost and weary,²¹
Please do not take me back.
Please do not let us take ourselves back.
To a time where Eden was only a wish,
A dream,
Not a reality I’ve truly seen
In glimpses and gaps.
Not in moments of ease,
But those of a permeating
Sense of peace.
	Of safety, of security,
	Of fairness, of righteousness,
	Of justice, of wholeness,
	Of goodness.

So let the light fall.
Let it pool at our feet.
Let us be bold enough to look down
And take it.²²
Humble enough to kneel down
And bathe in it.²³
Loving enough to collect
And share it.²⁴
And childlike enough to truly
Believe in it.²⁵

Written in June 2025 for the United Nations’ 80th Anniversary of Charter Day.

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¹ John 8:12

² Matthew 27:29-30

³ Genesis 2:8

⁴ 1 John 1:5

⁵ Psalm 84:11

⁶ Psalm 46:10, Mark 4:39, Exodus 14:14

⁷ Psalm 136:14, Hebrews 13:8

⁸ 2 Timothy 1:7, Psalm 23:4

⁹ Psalm 46:1, Proverbs 18:10

¹⁰ Matthew 5:14-16

¹¹ John 4:10-14

¹² Genesis 2:8, 2:10

¹³ Matthew 28:19

¹⁴ Genesis 2:7

¹⁵ 1 Peter 2:9, Psalm 148:3-6

¹⁶ Matthew 24:30

¹⁷ Luke 8:17

¹⁸ Genesis 1:27

¹⁹ Matthew 13:13

²⁰ Romans 12:9

²¹ Matthew 11:28

²² Matthew 16:24, 2 Corinthians 3:12

²³ Philippians 2:3, Luke 14:11

²⁴ Hebrews 13:16, Matthew 25:35

²⁵ Matthew 18:3