Have Our Being

Our people prayed. They did a special ceremony. Then the minds of the white men changed.

The Cherokee and other nations in the south were not the only ones
With a Trail of Tears.
The Navaho in the west had their own forced march to exile.
I hadn’t known.

But after four years and a special ceremony,
The Navaho returned.

This used to bother me.

The Navaho did a ceremony that, apparently,
Shifted things in the heavenlies and reversed their fortunes.

Or when a man, not a God-fearer,
Had an intuition that the present state would last six months,
And six months later, fortunes changed.
I sometimes have these intuitions … how did he?

Or when Mother Teresa asked Mary
To please take care of an issue that was hindering her,
And the issue went away.
I understand how God hears all our prayers.
But Mary? She was just a person, and
I can’t even hear two children speaking to me at once!

Or Balaam, the witch doctor, peddling blessings,
Yet proclaiming the truth of God and the children of Israel.

But then I see that Paul dealt with this already in Athens,
That God has made of one blood all nations of men,
That they should seek the Lord, if they would grope after him
And find him, for he is not far from any of us.
In him we live, and move, and have our being.

So maybe I don’t actually understand it,
But there is some space to hold the mystery.