the forgotten ones

Sometimes a crumb falls

From the tables of joy,

Sometimes a bone

Is flung

To some people

Love is given,

To others

Only heaven

                                         Langston Hughes (Selected Poems, p. 99)

The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.

He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

“Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.

                                                                        Matthew 15

“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

                                                                        Luke 16

___________________________________________________________

I am thinking this morning as,

 rain and snow mix in the February darkness

And men

And women

Sit in the halls of power

And bicker

And lie

About the forgotten ones

about the children still separated from their parent

sitting in “camps”

traumatized and alone

about the children of single mothers

who bewildered

watch their mothers cry

at the news that their SNAP check has been cut

again

about the children in schools

hiding under their desks

during another “shooter drill”

about the brown children

who return home to find their parents gone

snapped up in an ICE raid

I think about the children

The people caught in poverty

But not just the children

Not just the most vulnerable of the vulnerable

But about all the forgotten and minimized ones

The elderly

The mentally ill

The uninsured or underinsured ill

Those deemed “odd” or “less”

Those who are a different color, or creed, or orientation

Who have been minimized or oppressed

I think about the people of despair

Who wait for crumbs

Who hope that someone will notice

That someone will care

And act with compassion

Not pity

But compassion

Will see them, and value them,

And will share even a crumb of their own

Affluence

Their own blessing

Ah Lord, open our eyes to see those

We do not want to see

Open our ears, to hear the pleas

For respect and compassion

Of those diminished and rejected

Open our hearts

to those who have become invisible

so that we might have empathy

And open our hands

To offer gifts of love

May we not be those who

Throw bones

Or merely “drop crumbs”

But move us with you Spirit

To be people of generosity

People who know

That we are called

To feed the hungry

Clothe the naked

Be present for those bowed by injustice and inequity

To invite people to the table

Those people we may have forgotten

But whom you never forget