A Broken Family Finds Healing
by Michael Doyle

Emotions are relational in grace
As we love others in our embrace
We're all dysfunctional as we strive
In God's family, we will survive

Enriched by the joy that we share
In every moment that we show we care
Liturgical urges can be ordinary
While times like Advent are extraordinary

These are the times to bring proximity
As we place importance on loving our family
This is the greatest story ever told
As the life of Jesus openly unfolds

In examining the passages of genealogy
We find impressions of the paths of theology
These are the traces that bring deep meaning
This is the way of being human beings

There's a lot of wisdom birthed through pain
God's intentions are never found to be in vain
There's a little craziness in our family trees
AS history passes through on this world's breeze

We, as the Church, are those set apart
Keeping our truth close to our broken hearts
Father Abraham birthed three paths of belief
Then, his descendants found both love and grief

God's hands brought forth Abraham's nation
Fourteen generations later, it led to our salvation
Abraham heard and stepped out to God's call
Finding Canaan for God to show him the law

Two paths of wisdom, with one known as "reason"
While the faith of the Hebrews brought our season
Waiting for miracle answers, we hung to threaded hope
We made it through at the end of our tattered rope

God sees us all at our pivoting points made
Bringing us love and faith even when we're afraid
Wrestling with God, strangers can bring good news
Received with laughing ears despite our cynical ears

Sarcasm brought to joy heals our heart's scars
As we live our lives under God's twinkling stars
Broken families ripple through time's cause and effect
We must be careful with what it is that we reject

Step by step, we see how it  all connects
We turn the page to find what's coming next
Blessed seeds become the heritage of history
Lineage, law, and land lead to the sum of God's mystery

God got to us by the path of Christianity
To believe anything else is the folly of human vanity
Jesus came to heal our hurting, broken family
Justification is greater than any empty homily

Birthing the truth needed by all to know
In the pages of the Bible, it's clearly shown
This is the message of our needed redemption
Let us keep this in every day's contemplation

We stand on the other side of miracles given
Knowing that each of us can be healed and forgiven
We keep at this struggle until God breaks through
To shine His love and mercy on me and you

(c) December 8, 2024   Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved