I wish...

I wish atheists would read
the Bible
so they could read about
and then tell us about
which God they do not believe in
which would tell us more about
the one they do believe in,
and so they could tell us about
our Mother,
Nature,
whom we evoke implicitly
whenever we address explicitly
our Father,
God,
so they could tell us about
the spirit of Life,
present and working
in our bodies and creation,
where we only see disembodied "souls"
and a "kingdom" that is not only
not of this world,
but not even in it
at all,

I wish atheists would read
the Bible
so we could both see
the God who created, inhabits, sustains
this world,
and the God who promises
fulfillment
in the redemption
of new creation,
and so that we who believe in
"salvation"
could hear more about the need for
truly "good news"
and about the liberation we need
from the hell that exists,
here and now,
instead of dark and foreboding fears
of a damnation that is to come,
and to remember that eternal life
cannot become manifest in time
without breaking through
as "resurrection"
from pain of suffering and death,
the experience of the excruciating
that is all-too-present
but NOT the LEAST bit
eternal