This is exactly what I was talking about when I tested this poem for a test audience before submitting it. I intended it to be written in a way that the reader herself only truly understands what it means, because there is no true meaning set in stone.

Joseph's reading was correct, but his was just one of many. I wrote this poem intentionally that way. When me and a friend tried to figure it out, we found 6 different ways to read it. And that's how I want it. To speak profoundly about faith, but giving you, the reader, the final say in what it actually means.

That also means, of course, that your reading was perfectly correct as well.

Judging from these two comments, I think I succeeded in my ambitions with the poem. I wanted the poem to be only what the reader makes of it. I intended there to be many ways for it to Be. For every reader to understand it their way, without it being right or wrong.

As for my own reading of this poem? I will not say, that would spoil it a bit. Let's just stay with that both of you are correct, and both of you are wrong, at the same time. The deeper truth lies only in you, the reader's personal bond with the poem. Not with mine. ^^