Every Act of Justice

Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn.
         —Isaiah 58.6-8
Happy are those who fear the Lord. They have distributed freely, they have given to the poor. They rise in the darkness as a light for the upright.
         —Psalm 112. 9, 4
“You are the light of the world. Let your light shine before others, so that they may see by the light of your good works and give glory to your LIfe-Giver in heaven.
         —Matthew 5.14, 16

Every act of justice,
every act of compassion or mercy
is a light, a star in the night of this world.
You may think your efforts small and meaningless.
You may think they make no difference.
But go out and look up at the stars.
Which one should not have reached out in love?
Which one should never have bothered
to act in courage and compassion?
None of them rids the night of its darkness.
Yet God walks out and looks at them all
and smiles.
They all shine until they are swept up
in the great light
of the One who dawns among us.

Pastor Steve Garnaas-Holmes
From the Feb. 7 entry in the blog Unfolding Light