Second Tuesday in Lent

“And looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’” Mark 3:34-35

they are all around us—
the kids with dust in their hair,
families holding grief in their hands,
the lonely growing lonelier.
and in the middle of this circle
of the overlooked and despised,
Jesus wants us to notice—
not the shaking fists of power
or the most strident voices,
but those who always seem to have
more than enough for others.
in moments when fear draws borders
and profit rains fire from the sky,
Jesus puts another leaf in the table—
pushing it beyond checkpoints
and past those lines drawn in the sand
by all who see only enemies.
‘whoever does the will of God’—
that will which offers mercy
to a child sitting atop rubble,
that will which offers justice
to workers who have no voice,
that will which draws the stranger
into an embrace as if a prodigal.
communities aren’t birthed in
this widening gyre of the world,
families aren’t just bonded by blood,
but nurtured in fields of compassion,
watered by the tears of the forgotten,
harvested by kind acts of grace.
so let us draw close enough
to hear the other breathe,
take the time to learn the names
of everyone we are told to fear,
as we discover in the widening
circle of grace, we belong to one another.

© 2026 Thom M. Shuman

Venmo:@Thom-Shuman