We are the refuge.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

I wrote this years ago for a kids’ skit at church.  They were starting a hat drive for the poor.  It’s not meant to be perfect poetic meter.  My wife makes hats to this day.

“I do not like the cold,” said I
stepping outside on a brisk winter day.
“I do not like the cold,” said I
and went along my merry way.

“I do not like the cold,” said I
sleeping outside on a brisk winter day.
“I do not like the cold,” said I
and shuffled along my shivering way.

My breath in the air delighted me
walking along on a brisk winter day.
Like steam from a train it seemed to me
as I went along my merry way.

My breath in the air was a sign to me
trudging along on a brisk winter day.
‘Seek some warmth,’ it said to me,
as I moseyed along my teeth-chattering way.

My comfy coat surrounded me
in an air of warm insularity
My comical hat sat on top of me
with just a hint of jocularity.

My tattered coat was too small for me,
Not meant for air from the north polarity;
I had no hat on top of me;
frigid air frosted the tips of the hair of me.

I rounded the corner and what did I see?
Someone cold and shivering in front of me.
Far too big in that small coat to be,
wind swirling around a bare head icily.

Out of thin air, as if in a dream
the hand of an angel it did seem
reached out and placed a hat on my head.
Soft and warm.  “Thanks,” I said.

Now I make hats by the dozen and more.
Hats, hats, hats, hats, hats galore!
I do not sell them at any store,
but give them instead to Humboldt’s poor.

“For you have been a refuge to the poor,
a refuge to the needy in their distress,
a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from the heat.” 
Isaiah 25:4 New International Version

Picture and text, Copyright, Don Schatz