Where is the Love?

This picture was taken on a day where this boarded up House helped me see something anew and the following conversation, so to speak, ensued. 

Lord, since a young girl I’ve always known

Your House to be a place like home

Now in the wreckage, help me understand,

What went wrong? Was this your plan? 

While at the beginning your grace seemed there,

Over time emerged suspicious glare

Judgements erupted, then left behind,

Did you know that’s what I’d find?

At first, “Come join us,” they would say

“But only if you do it this way.

We’re certain we see clearly what you lack,

We’re free to judge behind your back.” 

“Where is the Love?” I ask dismayed

“You are out! Go away!”  Betrayed.

My whole family, my children too?

By those who say they speak for You?

Not only in our day, but Yours too, 

Your own kin justified, they believed true, 

Freely yelling, “Crucify!”

Absorbing their rage toward the one who died.

But I thought it would not be this way

Inside your House, inside this place

Where is the Love? Why so much hate?

“You’ll find me here— outside the gate.

It's with the lowly, humbled, meek

With the poor in spirit who truly seek

A light deeper than what can be seen

With human eyes of surface means.

I know this too, the pain you feel

It is not only deep and real

You know I use it to awaken

You are not forgotten, not forsaken.

I too was cast out from My home

I felt rejected and alone

But into My Father’s arms and care

Outside the House, I found Him there.”

But Lord, I am not like you; can you see

This same wound inside of me?

Thinking myself justified,

By those I tend to cast aside?

Let this not be lost to me

This severe and piercing reality

That those who often, in your name,

In their blindness bring more pain.

“Of course I knew that’s what you’d see

The false self, shackled, thinks it's free

If from My table you were cast out,

That was not My table, have no doubt.

Come to Me, though you are weary

I never despise the fatigued, the teary

Lean into Me, I give rest, dear heart,

Hold vigil with you in the dark.

Adopt this path, I’ve paved the way

No one can steal your life away

Do not fear losing what you lack,

Pour out your life, I give it back.

I will not let not your love grow cold

I’ll give you strength, make you bold

Forgive them, they know not what they do.

For I love them as I love you.

To all who lay down inner strife

I give My resurrected Life

I pour out liberally, abundant, free

The Love you seek, inside of Me.”