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A Voice In Ramah

Tag: love

  • A Prayer

    avoiceinramah

    A Prayer for Haitian Immigrants & Refugees

    Photo by Maarten van den Heuvel on Unsplash


    "I looked at the Statue of Liberty,
    but she didn't wave after me.
    I said, I looked at the Statue of Liberty
    but she didn't wave after me.
    You see, I was born in Haiti
    and the Coast Guard dumped me
    in the raging seas..."

    How long?
    How much more long, how long?
    How long?
    How much more long, how long?
    I wanna know how much more longer
    Is I'm just gon' have to wait on you?

    Song: How Long? 
    (Lyrics by Sweet Honey in the Rock)

    Remember when, as the New York Times front page headline termed, “Reagan Orders Aliens Stopped on the High Seas”? And no one seemed to care that dozens drowned a month later as boats overturned off Florida. Maybe because they were “aliens”?

    Remember when US Border Patrol Agents on horseback herded Haitian refugees like cattle? And everybody seemed to be ok because the Agents may have used unnecessary force on human beings, but at least they didn’t hit them?

    Remember when Donald Trump lifted a baseless lie on international television, accusing immigrants of eating pets? And with a few weak “fact check” comments from moderators, the debate between Trump and Kamala Harris went on as if there was no reason to be concerned about the implications of a dehumanizing lie from the unhinged leader of a national political party on the lives of the every day Haitian immigrants living in Springfield, Ohio.

    How long?

    That’s it. That is the prayer.

    How long, how much more long, how long?

  • Love That Is of God…

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    Three Girls Watching a Plane, Vivian Cherry
    When I thought I was full, 
    God sent more.
    God inspired more.
    God provoked 
    and instigated more.
    And the Love 
    that is of God 
    grew.

    Love that is of God
    is big love,
    good love,
    enduring and grounded
    and soaring and sweeping
    and lyrical and quiet.

    It is ferocious love that 
    knocks-down-barriers-and-borders
    the I AM never made because 
    the love that is of God
    refuses to be small. 

    Love that is of God
    is practical and joyful
    and transformative 
    and subversive -- 
    refusing to ever 
    leave us be
    love.

    Love that is of God
    is sufficiency
    and transforms into abundance
    when shared with another.

    Love that is of God 
    never subtracts,
    never diminishes,
    never humiliates,
    never erases - anyone.

    Love that is of God
    is the antidote to lies.
    Love that is of God 
    tells the healing truth,
    weaves and re-weaves,
    and braids together,
    and adds and multiplies 
    and compounds love.

    Love that is of God
    is limitless
    and stubborn
    and it never, ever dies.

    That love is too big for borrowed tombs.
    That love swallows up death.
    That love shares power with 
    the beloved
    to keep 
    getting up
    because that love loves.

    Love that is of God
    makes a home
    in all of the places
    and in all of the people,
    and in all of the stories
    that we would not.

    Love that is of God
    beckons us to stretch,
    to be more - 
    to see more -
    to want more -
    to pursue more -
    to feel more -
    not because we are not enough
    but because we are more.
    Love that is of God
    says, "Be who you are."

    Love that is of God 
    shows off,
    leading with a heart
    that delights
    in the giggles of children
    and the songs of the aged.

    Love that is of God
    cries and weeps and storms
    and becomes furious
    and indignant
    at the sight of 
    God's beloved
    fashioning God's own 
    words and resources
    into weapons and bonds 
    and chains and stumbling blocks
    for God's beloved. 

    Love that is of God
    breathes on
    the canvass of every night,
    turning up the wattage
    of every sparkling star
    assigned to lead
    the beloved to freedom.

    Love that is of God sings.

    Love that is of God searches,
    never sleeps,
    travels light,
    makes room,
    gathers chicks
    and stubbornly refuses
    to leave
    not nary a one behind,
    not nary a one out,
    not nary a one alone.
    Ever. 

    When we think we are full, 
    God sends more.
    God inspires more.
    God provokes and instigates more.

    And we know the love 
    that is of God
    is alive among us
    when the 
    love of God grows.

    Image: “Three Girls Watching a Plane,” by Vivian Cherry.

  • Lighting Candles….

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    I Will Light Candles,
    by Howard Thurman

    I will light Candles this Christmas;
    Candles of joy despite all sadness,
    Candles of hope where despair keeps watch,
    Candles of courage for fears ever present,

    Candles of peace for tempest-tossed days,
    Candles of grace to ease heavy burdens,
    Candles of love to inspire all my living,
    Candles that will burn all the year long.

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