Provision

Five years ago, a slender woman
With five older children showed up in church.

I chased her down the hall after service, calling,
“Homeschooling mother, wait!”

She waited for me.
We were friends.

I think now of her tenacious search for a church home,
Even after her husband had given up in despair,

So that now there is a church family to feed them,
To pray for them, to grieve with them.

This is not a provision anyone wants to make use of,
But it is a provision nonetheless.