[Holy Week]: #10; A Little Parable

I made the cross myself whose weight
  Was later laid on me.
This thought is torture as I toil
  Up life's steep Calvary.

To think mine own hands drove the nails!
  I sang a merry song,
And chose the heaviest wood I had
  To build it firm and strong.

If I had guessed--if I had dreamed
  Its weight was meant for me,
I should have made a lighter cross
  To bear up Calvary!

--Anne Reeve Aldrich, 1866-1892