There stand some marks upon her arm,
Voluntary strikes in black and blue,
Words that comfort, words that declare
In simple script, “Because I love you.”

It is the glue that secures--
The chain between anchor and ship--
A relationship through calm and gale
And restores to unity and fellowship:

Birthed in promise, alive like fire,
It is profoundly unconditional,
A love that perseveres through the dark,
Solid, devoted, missional.

For how are the grieving embraced and bitter loved,
The poor clothed and the hungry fed,
The new welcomed and lonely embraced,
The weak assured and discouraged led,

without love unconditional?
Constant and sure, it is an affection
That listens to a screaming heart
And looks beyond imperfection.

Clothed in radical sacrifice
And robed in selfless ambition,
It is the smile to the stranger,
The love that gives of its own volition.

The rebuilder of broken things,
It lives as the solution
To old toys and shattered lives,
Racial divides and rampant pollution.

It seeks not its own gain,
Nor expects reward for its sacrifice
It forgives with abandon
And itself will pay the price.

Along the shore at dawn,
A voice hails those who pass that way,
A voice with a million faces,
A voice that cries while it is still day:

“Who will rise to the call of courage,
Who will answer the summon of strength,
Who will care to have compassion
And love in breadth and length?”

The day passes and night sets in,
And with the brevity of yesterday
The promise of tomorrow only stands
When we love with the chance of today.

It is the only rock that supports,
The only hope that upholds,
The only way a relationship will stand--
Unconditional love, a thousand fold.

They were strikes upon her skin,
With the ink of a tattoo pen,
Letters that will endure til the day she dies,
A love that allows her to live again.