Poem: "Not One Soul Be Lost"

This poem came out of the October 2-3, 2012 Poetry Fishbowl.  It was inspired by haikujaguar, Anthony & Shirley Barrette.  It also fills the "sacrifice" square on my card for the Hurt/Comfort Bingo fest.  It has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette.

When God spoke of His plan
to redeem humankind through
the sacrifice of Jesus Christ,
Lucifer objected to the flaws.
He proposed a safer plan,
by which not one soul be lost.

God refused.  He insisted
that free will come with consequences,
that souls must have the option
of being lost to the void.

So the Lightbringer
turned his back on Heaven,
walked away from the golden throne
and carried his blazing torch
into the darkness of the void.

There Lucifer built a place
for all the castoff souls
who would not go to Heaven.
He swore that Hell
would become for each of those souls
whatever they wanted or needed it to be,
and that he would always keep it open
for whomever chose to enter, for any reason.

Then Jesus Christ was sent to Earth,
and tormented there,
where He hung on the cross for hours
before finally dying --
and then He went home to Heaven,
done with His mortal task.

Lucifer has been in Hell for millennia.
He has created countless demons,
one for every human born,
so that nobody need walk alone
no matter how wicked their choices
or how far from God they might roam.

It hurts,
to remember Heaven
as it was before the sundering,
to be so far from the center of all that is.

It burns,
to see what some souls
have required Hell to become;
but all that brings light must burn for it.

This is Lucifer's sacrifice,
every moment of every day,
ensuring that the whole of humanity
is kept company throughout existence,
whatever the cost.

It hurts, it burns,
but the Lightbringer is a shining thing
by whose grace and whose sacrifice

not one soul be lost.