Kenders' Musings

“Does love exist?” asked the wizened old man
who sat at the bar next to me
“I love this beer” I quickly shot back
“What other love could there be?”
“The love” he says “that grabs your heart.
The kind that won’t let go
A love that passes on thru death
And lives forever you know”
Says I “that love lives not in this world friend,
I’m certain it is gone”
“Then come with me” the old man bade
“We won’t be gone too long”
He walked me thru the baby ward
where a mother held her new child
And in her eyes I saw a pure love
which I knew would last more than awhile
He took me to the mission inn
where homeless go to eat
The serving man behind the counter
had rags wrapped round his feet
“Old man” I said “should you not be
the one receiving this fare?”
He smiled a mostly toothless grin
and said “look over there”
I looked to where his ladle showed
a family huddled close
With their meals laid out in front of them
offering up a toast
“To God” they said,
“as He provides for those who need the aid”
To men who help with rag wrapped feet
his thanks he simply bade
Next we went to the grave yard where
an old widow knelt in the dirt
Cleaning the stone laid atop her dear mate
even though her aged knees surely hurt…
He took me aside to a mountaintop
where three crosses stood side by side
And showed me the spot on Jerusalems soil
where for all our sins He did die…
“You see the love that burns beyond our petty lives,
you cannot deny its flame”
And in the shadow of that cross
I hung my head in shame…
The love that burns brightest is the hardest to grab, its for this love He did die…
And I saw the love burn
and I felt my redemption
And in the bright darkness I cried….

Merry Christmas. May God hold you in the palm of his hand. And to all our soldiers not able to make it home this season (snaks this one is for you) Thank you.