Third Sunday of Advent

Read Matthew 11:2-11

a cool cloth
laid gently on
    a fevered brow;
holding hands
with a parkinsoned
    grandmother;
singing hymns
with a father who
    cannot remember his
            name:

        hope
is the comfort
    we can wrap
    around others in
            the winter
        of their
    distress.

as we grieve
the loss of wisdom
    in the ones
        at whose feet
    we sat;
as we work
to transform a culture
    where the scarred,
        the wrinkled, the broken,
            the limited
    are marginalized;
as we serve
        our sisters and brothers
    who have no
            food,
                shelter,
        joy:

           hope
is the protest we cry
    out to
        heaven.

are you the
            One
    we hope for?

come, Lord Jesus,
        Hope
    of all hearts,

come

© 2010  Thom M. Shuman