Its a tricky thing to write about pain and hospitality. Fear and Risk. You never know where people have been, recently or through seasons. While I typically tag a verse at the end to support the idea, I think the passage from Corinthians is particularly relevant on this one.
The Foyer Rug
Everybody wants to talk about my foyer rug.
Kids, parents, new friends and old.
The homeless, helpless and those who love to scold.
It was given years ago, at a time when no one seemed to care
Spotless hopeful fabric, free from weather, rain and wear.
A sponge for libations of joy, guilt, birth and death
Just inside an unlocked door, the collecting ground of confidential breath.
Like Mary Shelley’s opus, a monstrous muddy clump
Revolving stories no one knew, priceless crusted bumps.
Offensive and disarming, every fiber makes me smile
A greeting for the weary, from wound, weep and trial.
I’ll leave the door wide open, you can sit and lay your cares
Nothing you can spill is worse than what’s already there.
- B. Oaks
“For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. all the difference.”