Fourth Thursday of Advent

Read Psalm 18:1-20

        34th miner

for those
trapped below the crust
    of the earth,
                as well as all
            trapped below the surface
            of casual compassion,
    you are the driller of
                hope;

for those who live
    in shelter cobbled together
        from buildings thrown
        down by quaking ground,
                    and those who dwell
                in cardboard suburbs
                surrounding gentrified
                        city cores,
    you are the carpenter of
                    new life;

for your children
    continuing to mop up
            the spills after all
            the celebrities have left,
                    and your creatures
                who struggle to find
                places to nest their
                            young,
    you are the shrimper who
           draws them out of
                troubled waters.

we love you, O LORD,
            for you delight in us
    so much that
        you became
    us.

© 2010  Thom M. Shuman