This is the first in a series of poems about Christmas, this Christmas. Through the framing device of the five Advent candles that mark the progression of the season in various Christian traditions, they will attempt to speak the truth about Christmas in congregant care, both to and from those experiencing it.

Prologue:

Candles aren’t allowed here
Not even at Christmastime
There are too many bodies
Making this group home a home.
 
Everything is risky,
These days, and that is why
Everyone is home this year
For Christmas without candles.
 
We have those lights that flicker
We have the fireplace channel
But those can’t keep us warm
So let’s do something else.
 
If we can’t light the candles
Or go to church to see them
We’ll have to be the candles
And say our names out loud:
 
I. Faith

Sometimes it seems like all
We’ve done this year is try
To keep the virus out
And look! We mostly have. 
 
We have faith that this won’t last
That this sickness will end
In glory, not in death, but
We know sometimes they’re the same.
 
We have lost so many friends
But we have faith that Jesus
Knows just where to find them
And there’s nowhere he won’t go.