Like children who pop out of bed
on Christmas day, let us awake,
eager to unwrap the present.
But if we cannnot,
if all we find is dismal,
a day like the worst of Job's,
still we are yours,
for you have claimed us,
you who were broken,
you who have gone before us,
to the other side of suffering.
Photo of shattered Christmas ornament
by Danny N. Schweers, copyright 2002; prayer, 2010.