God Grieves

After disasters, after 9/11, 

after Katrina, Irma, Maria, Michael,

I have sensed an overwhelming grief,

God’s grief for his beloved children. 

God is with us – in our grief. 

 

But I think, like a loving parent,

God also grieves

when we behave badly –

when we hate or exclude, 

or build churches based

on “human traditions” and un-grace.

 

God grieves –

when we fear the poor,

exclude those who are different,

when we hate those of other ethnicities,

those of different colors, religions,

or orientations.

 

God grieves –

anytime we neglect the needy,

fail to feed the hungry,

and when we elect people 

based on our own fear, hate, 

white supremacy, and greed.

 

But I continue to hold on

to hope and joy,

for God also smiles –

when we love and care for others,

God smiles –

 

Oh, God doesn’t love us

more or less for it –

but when we love,

when we sparkle, God smiles.

 

Remember Camelot?

In the closing lines,

Arthur says we are each less than a drop

“in the great, blue motion of the sunlit sea.

But it seems that some of the drops sparkle”

“Some of them do sparkle.”

 

Let us be drops that sparkle,

people who love

and care, and hope,

and make God smile.