Christmas Cookies

Merry Christmas! This week’s poem – posted on Sunday because Sunday is Christmas – describes one of my favorite holiday memories . . . a true story from an Advent Dinner with granddaughter Natalie at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Ann Arbor. Natalie was 5 or 6 when this happened; she is nearly 12 now.

JESUS LOVES THE LITTLE CHILDREN
(or, Green Frosting and Sprinkles)
 
You were five or six when I took you 
to the Advent Dinner at church 
and had not yet absorbed 
Christ's lessons of sacrifice, 
of placing a neighbor's needs 
above your own 
 
so when I admonished you 
to stop eating Christmas cookies 
before the meal was served – 
cookies placed equally at each table 
by church ladies who adored you - 
you agreed before taking a bite 
from every cookie with green frosting 
and peppermint sprinkles. 

Returned to the communal plate, 
they rested among lesser companions, 
your dental imprint now in stark relief. 
"What are you doing?" I asked in horror. 
"Those are my favorites," you explained, 
"and I want to make sure no one else eats them."

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A New Poem Every Monday
(unless life gets in the way)

Joseph Neely, all rights reserved