You helped us buy a house this week.

The house at 1312 Ransom is old and decrepit--
100 years plus.
Its wooden plank siding is rotted,
hanging loose.
Windows are cracked, some broken.
Paint is faded and peeling.

Yet, out from its foundation grows--
impossibly, in December!--
a single, orange rose.
Perfect young petals
Boldly, clinging to the foundation,
announcing,"I'm here and
not letting go."

Beauty has found its way--yet again--into ruin.
Hope blooms stubbornly in decay.

A reminder that the Creator never gives up.
Not on houses or neighborhoods.
Not on cities. Not on people.

God is.
God is here
in the brokenness
in the despair
most incredibly, in the redemption.

We get to participate in this redemption song.
We are invited to rebuild and restore.
This is gospel good news!

Thank you for living it with us in 2015.

We enter 2016 with hope and gratitude.

Together, seeking SHALOM in the City!

Sarah Rinsema-Sybenga
Executive Director

P.S. - Click here to listen to Over the Rhine's "Redemption Song" (their song that inspired this poem).