Writing on the Ground

Then each of them went home, while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.” John 7:53—8:11 

Writing On The Ground

We write our love in the wet sand
knowing the tide will cover it
we scratch our names in the bark
someday our children will see it.

We leave marks everywhere we go
what we condemn burns and hurts
we think we are not seen in private
yet it was written on the ground.

Etched in stone and permanent
our sorrows find us despite it all
we pretend to be perfect and strutt
in the night's loneliness we cry out.

We are no better nor worse than others
we are dust and to dust we are returning
when our names are forgotten and gone
the pain or joy we leave behind remembered.

The Divine writes on the ground
not to condemn us but to set us free
moving us toward humility, kindness
giving us a home in this broken world.