Scant Offerings (Teruma 5785)

How do we bring You offerings of the heart
when our hearts are so very 
     Heavy

The world seems to be 
     Careening 
out of control
Ugly and unpredictable
Someone called it a dumpster fire 
today
And certainly fires are burning as we reap
the consequences of our abuse of Your 
beautiful world
Not to mention one another,
Your beautiful creations

What do we have to offer You
when we seem to be so weak and vile
When we can’t stand to look at ourselves
When we can’t remember all the potential we have
     All the Beauty 
    and Love and 
Care we are capable of
What can we offer You when we have lost
our way?

You ask us to make You a sanctuary
so that You might dwell among us
These sacred spaces, now, 
matter more than ever,
when they are built on love,
on the offerings of the heart

When they are not the ones built on
foundations of hatred and intolerance
Those, surely, were not the ones You asked us
to build

We are taught 
that by asking us to bring only what we can
You become a God who needs only 
what we can give.

This matters now
When our reserves are low
When our hearts and spirits are 
     broken
This means You will not abandon us
When all we can bring is our pain and our
Questions and our
Doubts 
And our prayers

This means You will accept the offerings of our hearts
even when they are bitter and not
celebratory
We cannot offer You happiness right now
We can only offer our sad eyes
But if that is enough
You might one day lead us back
to joy