Hindrances

And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again. And again, as was his custom, he taught them.

And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them. Mark 10:1-16

Hindrances

We weave these glossy webs
moist and catching the unsuspecting
the vulnerable and innocent wander
into the web face first frightened
they are bound by our selfishness.

We pride ourselves in personal power
aching to bring the loving to their knees
the warp and weave our hymnals
the ever tightening yarn of control
we choke the life out of possibilities.

The web is meant to catch our prey
we shine and gloss over our predatory nature
proud of accomplishments and winning
we feed off the innocent simple and unaware.

Love does no spinning no scheming
content with the beauty and gifts given
a child wandering in a meadow singing
songs that catch in the breeze
a melody of divine relationship.

Fury becomes us as we watch and ache
that we cannot control or contain love
we cannot plot and devise a way
green envy and orange rage fills us
we make love evil and banish it now.

There is still a meadow ans still children
no chains can prevent the boundlessness
no dried up vengeful mob can secure compassion
no self-righteous darkness can prevail
only God can restore that hurting angry heart.