We shine a light for Kyiv,and the cities of Kharkiv and Kherson
We shine a light for Chernihiv
and for Chernobyl
We shine a light for the woman from Kyiv packing her car
with her 11 year old son
and then driving nonstop
to her parents house in the deep countryside of Ukraine,
Her 11 year old
who can’t stop
shaking.
They arrive and eat borsch under the mulberry tree
and her father won’t let go
of her sons hand.
We shine a light for the the man who didn’t get into the railway tunnel in time and whose face
is now shattered
with glass.
We shine a light for the refugees fleeing to Poland.
We shine a light for 50-year-old Alexander, who was manning a makeshift barricade at the entrance to one village with a group of other locals,
brandishing whatever weapons they had.
He said:
“Of course, if it’s a tank, in this terrain there’s nothing we can do and we need to run.
But if it’s anything less than a tank,
we will fight,”
Jesus of the Transfiguration.
Jesus of the Sorrows.
You knew what is was to feel beauty,
face fear
and then walk back into the fire.
Help us to hold fast to that which is good
And to believe in the ancient truth
that the light shines in the darkness
and that the darkness cannot
(they say as they watch the sun set in the branches of the mulberry tree)
overcome
the light.
Rev Alex Sangster