Some time ago on the church's FB page, I posed the question, What happened when you turned your cheek? The one-line answers were thoughtful and memorable. Herein my offering, a poem weaving the various answers into a pondering of the turning as we sometimes journey to the ground for the doing of this work of peace-being Jesus calls us to.
As I turned, I saw a different point of view
and for a moment, I thought
‘well done - I am humbled and instructed’
and then the other side got hit
too late it was to turn the rest of me,
to get out of range and let the other
dear sweet child of God
fall to the ground face first
As I looked up from the ground,
I saw another possibility
as I turned my other cheek to hide my tears
for, as I turned, he surprised me and kissed it too!
Then I remembered ‘love your neighbor as yourself’
and all the fight and hurt within me, between us, evaporated
