we’ve known you Jacob
your peers all our lives
your picture, your grin
your glad carefree eyes
we’ve known you Jacob
your lighthearted lip
your yellow yarn sweater
and video clips
our brother, our cousin
our neighbor and friend
our lights have all glowed
awaiting the end
of all the unknowing
and yet though it’s come
it’s surely not true
that the hoping is done
for you brought us closer
this state, with your light
and it beams and beams on
in the face of the night

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.  Matt 5:4

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.  1 John 1:5

image: Jacob Wetterling 1989, 11 years old