Obama’s Democratic critics speak volumes;
Homeless at Christmastime;
A Call for Compassion;
A Season of Red, Green and Amber

A Purpose-Driven Choice
Obama’s Democratic critics speak volumes

Obama’s made a purpose-driven choice
bout who will pray
when he takes the oath of office
on Inauguration Day.

He hopes to curry favor
with the Evangelicals
but by his choice his left-wing base
has grown quite cynical.

They say Rick Warren’s phobic
of both lesbians and gays
and that Barack should change his mind
in terms of him who prays.

I guess they think that reaching out
to those “who aren’t like you”
means atheists, agnostics
and the non-religious Jews.

Befriending one who follows Christ
is just unthinkable.
The liberal base views tolerance
to Christians as pure bull.

Amazingly the day has come
when Biblicists draw fire
and those embracing timeless truth
have raised the critics’ ire.

Can you believe this pastor
who resembles Billy Graham
is rendered unacceptable
and un-American?

My God, how far we’ve fallen
from the standards You once blessed.
We’re sinking in the quicksand
of depraved unrighteousness.

Homeless at Christmastime
A familiar scenario challenges our bias

In need of shelter, food and clothes
a homeless couple nearly froze
while wandering from door to door.
They wondered if God cared.

Their plight was caused by government
that taxed them poor and stole their rent.
Each night they faced the humbling task
of looking for a bed.

Do you recognize them?
Do you know their names?

A baby fills the woman’s womb.
She knows delivery will be soon.
But what she doesn’t know is where
her labor will conclude.

Both she and her young husband find
the world is prejudice and blind
to those in need whose lot in life
is not what meets the eye.

And yet not everyone’s the same.
Unwilling to attribute shame
to these whose need can’t be denied,
an unnamed man responds.

When posed the Starbucks’ question “Room?”
he sees two faces framed by gloom
and makes the effort to make space
before the two are three.

A Call for Compassion
Remembering the homeless at the holidays (and everyday)

When darkness falls, where will he sleep?
The hill that leads to help is steep.
And since he’s weak and lacks the strength,
he makes the street his bed.

Her face is stained by sweat and tears.
Her eyes reflect unstated fears
that stalk her hopes and dreams each night
and greet her with the dawn.

Where will they go? Can help be found?
Or will they curl up on the ground
in some deserted alley way
or on a vacant bench.

The need is great. The cost quite small
when what it takes is shared by all.
And when we give to serve the least,
we benefit the most.

So when appeals come in the mail
or bells are rung beside a pail,
resist the urge to blow them off.
Remember, times are hard.

A Season of Red, Green and Amber
What the death of one child has to do with the birth of another

Adam Walsh was the first symbol
of missing children victimized
by serpent-like villains who
slither in the grass.
Predators who feed on the helpless
and devour a parent’s peace of mind.
Especially when the guilty
escape capture
or justice.

But peace of mind
has been restored to one victim’s
mother and dad
after twenty-seven
dreadfully long years

America’s Most Wanted
is wanted no longer.
In short, when the Miami “heat”
finally admitted their failure
(as well as the facts),
a cold case
was closed this week.

John and Reve Walsh
are more apt to sleep in heavenly peace
this Christmas.
Why? Because they know the name
of their son’s killer.
What is more
Ottis Toole will never kill again.
And for good reason,
that bad man is dead.

For the Walsh family,
the colors of the season
aren’t just red and green.

For them, Amber has become
just as significant.
It’s a color signaling
the sad reality that children
(like their son)
continue to be at risk.

Amber is the color
that calls to mind
why we celebrate Christmas
in the first place.

Long ago and far away
in an ancient garden
of goodness and light,
innocence was stalked
by the forces of darkness.
It was there another Adam
was defiled by deceit
and robbed of his
God-intended destiny.

Furthermore, in Eden’s Adam
we see countless others
whose disappearance and deaths
prompted a search and rescue mission
conceived in the heart of God
long before Mary conceived
a baby in her virgin womb
(or Reve conceived Adam
in love’s embrace).

It was the embryo of grace
that would (in His perfect time)
develop into
fully-formed love.

And so to our evil-prone world
God came as a helpless child
knowing all the while
He would be hunted and captured
by the powers of darkness.

And though an Amber-alert-like panic
would signal hopeless despair,.
it would only last for three days.
The One kidnapped by evil
would eventually be found alive
and would be found capable of
rescuing all who put their trust in Him.