December 8, 2008

Read Isaiah 5:8-12, 18-23

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly.—Luke 1:52

This evening as I was winding up a long day at the downtown church I serve, our cook came to me and told me that there were two women, both in tears, and their young son, Christian, in the dining room. I knew Christian and one of the women. She and the boy had been coming to the church’s drop-in center for the past few weeks, and she told me a bit of their story. Her partner was working at a local Wal-Mart, but they lost their apartment when she lost her job at a day-care center. I knew that they were struggling to find a shelter, but that no beds were available. Some nights, a friend who managed a pizza parlor would lock them in the restaurant and let them sleep in the booths after closing. Other nights, they slept on the docks. Each night they are on the streets, they risk losing their son, not to mention their lives. This cold night, the pain and stress were more than they could bear.

When I work with families like Christian and his parents - with individuals who have no resources, no support, no place to lay their heads - I come to a deeper understanding of why Jesus came into this world. He came to give hope to those in need, to lift up the lonely and the homeless and to call those of us with resources into solidarity with those less fortunate.

Pray: O gracious and merciful God, we so often fail to see the invisible living among us. Yet you sent your son to bring down the powerful and lift up the lowly. Open our eyes and hearts to the lost, the lonely and the forgotten, and grant that we may work together with them to raise each one up so that we may all share in the blessings of your creation.

Anne O’Donnell is a second year student at Eden Theological Seminary, and pursuing ordination as an elder in the United Methodist Church.