Grumbles

After Luke 15:1-7

What is this, this gathering

with convicts, with thieves,

with abusers, with traffickers,

with the dirty and smelling

and foul-mouthed, with the profane?

How does one avoid that stain?

Why embrace it so eagerly,

so calmly, not even washing

hands?

We jostle to be closer,

to hear what he says,

and he looks, not

at our faces but

at our hearts, as if

he reads our minds.

He gathers his arms 

around us, filthy rabble 

that we are. This is why,

he says.

Photograph by Nathan Dunlao via Unsplash. Used with permission.