With and Without Shelter

Sunday night we opened our doors to people in need of shelter. We will have guests revisiting from last year and new ones throughout the week.

We have been privileged to offer a place for our guests to come and receive a warm meal, conversation, and a quiet and safe space to sleep.

Sometimes as I think of our guests, I wonder what they notice that are gifts the world gives and we completely miss.

Please hold us all in prayer for all we have to offer and receive, by God’s good grace.

Some Things the World Gave

–  Mary Oliver

1

Times in the morning early

when it rained and the long gray

buildings came forward from darkness

offering their windows for light.

2

Evenings out there on the plains

when sunset donated farms

that yearned so far to the west that the world

centered there and bowed down.

3

A teacher at a country school

walking home past a great marsh

where ducks came gliding in —

she saw the boy out hunting and waved.

4

Silence on a hill where the path ended

and then the forest below

moving in one long whisper

as evening touched the leaves.

5

Shelter in winter that day —

a storm coming, but in the lee

of an island in a cover with friends —

oh, little bright cup of sun.