fifth monday in lent

“He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.’   Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them,” Mark 9:35-36

then you take

the young person spending

their days picking up supplies

for the vulnerable in our midst,

the older folks in retirement

dusting off their sewing machines

to make masks and gowns

for the front line at the hospitals,

the neighbors who cannot gather

to worship at their churches

but are in the parking lots

feeding those who haven’t

had a decent meal since the

orders for shutdown were given,

saying

‘there . . .  there they are:

the lasts of the world

gathering up the little ones

in their arms and holding them

just as i showed them.”

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman