To Love the Lost

To love the lost is first to sit in quiet.

To simply listen.

Speaking without hearing

ignores the deep ache of history.

It builds a fortress of our own rightness,

turning fragile, breathing lives into a project.

Or something much colder.

But honest love is a bridge,

asking all to make the crossing.

Vulnerability breathes in two directions,

and our truest testimony is often in the silence:

holding the space,

letting the moment resonate,

until the only thing remaining

is an open hand,

and an invitation to walk together.