Hard Knocks for Amanda

The verdict's in
and the word is out.

Amanda won't be home for Christmas
(unless you call her Italian cell her new abode).
But it's not.
Seattle is home.

That's the place for which she pines.
A city that loves her and believes in her.
A community that believes her story
and prays for her soon return
all the while weeping.

A place where weather proves on a regular basis
that Heaven's tears eventually give way to the
bluest skies you've ever seen
when at long last the sun finally appears.

Although dark clouds shrouding our Mountain
attempt to hide the truth,
the truth eventually comes out.
What was wrongly assumed is proven false.
Rainier has been there day and night,
whether seen or not.

And so the falling rain of injustice
(that mingles with Amanda's tears)
will, in time, dissipate
revealing the mountain of evidence
that was there all along.

Meanwhile, in the bleak midwinter
as Amanda spends silent nights
dreaming of joy in her world,
she is only too aware
of Mary's unenviable plight:
misunderstood and maligned,
slandered and judged,
incapable of explaining the unexplainable.

Sadly, she has no Joseph to reassure her
that everything will eventually be okay.
Or does she?

Perhaps her carpenter from Nazareth
is a dad and mom and three sisters
who build her faith
and construct her confidence
based upon a blueprint of family love.

Loving Father, give this precious child
(so very far from home)
a tangible sense of Your presence.

Of all the names by which You're known,
may Your Christmas name,
Emmanuel (God-with-us),
be her favorite name for You.

May You be God-with-her.