1.
The Color of Redemption
I can’t bear to think
of His beautiful dark skin
ripped down to muscle.
2.
Lapis Lazuli
More precious than gold,
this deep blue embodies the
Mother of Jesus.
3.
Holy Reflection
Only light as pure
as reflects from God’s own Son
can mirror His love.
© Marie Elena Good 2026
REDEEMED
Not a trait from birth
nor my own making, but an
unmerited gift.
This gift describes me.
It labels and defines me.
It tells you I’m a
sinner-deemed-sinless,
ransomed by innocent blood —
a debt I can’t pay.
I’m liberated.
Rescued. Emancipated.
Bought back. Paid in full
by Jesus my Lord
with a love beyond measure
for me, and for you.
© Marie Elena Good 2025
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.” (From the Holy Bible’s book of Ephesians 1:3,7, and 8.)
Eye of the Beholder
Some of the most
physically gorgeous
sincere
generous
intelligent
strongest
kindest women I know —
women I have the privilege of loving
and being loved by —
scream.
Not with their voices
but with their color
covering
accent
mother tongue.
They scream,
Foreigner!
Criminal!
Unsafe!
Unwelcome!
The beautiful truths in their hearts
are misperceived.
They are viewed as ugly lies
in the eyes of the listeners
who hear only what they are told
to hear.
If only you knew them.
If only you were willing
to spend time
communicating
communing
sharing food
exchanging smiles
searching their eyes
tracing their hearts
experiencing their generosity,
your hate and fear would
shut up
shut down.
Your heart and home would
open
expand
make way.
You would hear not screams, but
intelligent ideas
endearing emotions
liberal benevolence
soothing sentiments
and you would do anything in your power
to protect their lives and their hearts,
and protect your relationship with them.
Anything.
© Marie Elena Good 2025
AT RISK OF INCONVENIENCE
When is the time to
ask, “From what are you fleeing?”
to decipher which
response sits well with
your belief system of what
is acceptable?
A conventional
distance between bombs fallen,
and their child’s bedroom?
Number of women
kidnapped for sexual gain?
Number of children?
The amount of food
unavailable to feed
themselves? Their children?
Are there adequate
words to set your mind at ease
that this person’s plight’s
perilous enough
to justify leaving home,
setting themselves at
risk in different ways
than what they feel forced to leave –
forced to escape – now?
To make certain their
endangerment matches your
own definition?
And when, in your thoughts,
is it acceptable to
bomb a hospital?
Perhaps when evil
lurks beneath? Then, innocents
are expendable?
What gives you enough
luxury of ease of mind
to give your thumbs up?
© Marie Elena Good 2024
“Let earth receive her King.”
King of Uncommon Love
Where are the humble kings?
Those who do nothing
but what their father tells them to do?
Where are those who set aside power
who leave glory
who serve
who wash the feet
of friend and foe
who wear sandals
who cook fish on the shore
who feed multitudes
with a few fish and rolls
who change water to wine
for wedding guests
who walk with, feed, and touch
those deemed unclean
who spend time
with those others shun
who come not to judge,
but to save
who give their lives for their people.
Where is a King of uncommon love?
Look to a manger.
Look to a cross.
Then come.
Come,
let us adore Him.
© Marie Elena Good, 2022
GIFT
What is the best gift but food for one who is hungry, and drink for one who thirsts? For those who feel most unlovable, love feels most crucial, yet most inaccessible. For those who’ve done wrong, the most meaningful gift is forgiveness in full. For this, God set His power aside to be born of a virgin as a helpless newborn boy, reliant on a woman’s breast for nourishment, heart for love, and her tutelage and care for survival and growth. For this, Christ Jesus came: to feed, to love, to quench, and to fully forgive.
The extravagance
of the season, embodied:
God wrapped in infant.
© Marie Elena Good, 2022
(Full disclosure: I decided to write this haibun, using the final 17 syllables I’d written many years ago. May the Gift of this season settle into your own heart.)
This photo is not a well-focused, balanced, artistic photo. It is just my snapshot
of homemade chicken noodle soup, made by my super caring husband.
It is one thing I have to be thankful for while I am sick on my favorite week of the year.
And there are so many others.
My cozy home, with the Christmas tree up, and a comfortable recliner from which to enjoy it.
My soft lavender robe, and just-as-soft tissues for my nose.
A family member who will be doing a Thanksgiving meal “porch drop” for Keith and me,
and other family members who offered the same
and friends and students who have offered food and help and loving words of encouragement
and who check in on me just because they are selfless souls who care deeply
and a doctor able to see me on the same day I called
and insurance to pay the doctor and the medicine
and a comfortable spare bedroom for Keith to sleep in so I don’t keep him awake with my cough
and WhatsApp to keep in touch for free with my daughter in India
and the amazing, gentle care she is receiving for a herniated disc, from grandmotherly women
and doctors making daily home visits to the room she is renting from these women
and the ease of heart it helps me feel while she is there alone and in pain and without my help
and the Father of All who is no less there than He is here
and the vast array of birds and fun critters outside my huge windows that let in all the light
and loving souls in my life who share their beautiful words and prayers and sentiments and lives
and parents who passed on, but left themselves in unspeakable ways right here in my heart
and children who struggle, but l.o.v.e. in all the ways afforded to them, and who I proudly call my own
and granddaughters who give joy in ways I never could have imagined
and their daddy who is not just an in-law to me
and music
and poetry
and books
and life
and Jesus in the nativity beneath my tree, and His saving cross at the top
and the Word of God
and the Lamb of God
and the love of God
and no period, because there is no end
Exposure to the vastness of our world
reveals the limitations of my brain.
As gleaming glows of galaxies unfurled
have come to light, I cannot even feign
to grasp a tiny bit of what exists,
or visualize what else may be out there.
For as the search continues to persist,
we’ll surely find more great unknowns elsewhere.
Here’s me, my feet fixed firmly to the ground;
my tiny world spills full with those I love.
My eyes and heart lift up to God, spellbound
at what He made that I can scarce dream of.
This God who spoke unending realms to be,
sees fit to whisper words of love to me.
© Marie Elena Good, 2022
“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place: What is mankind that you are mindful of them? Human beings that you care for them?”
~ Psalm 8:3-4
The week leading up
to the most sacred of our
Christian holidays
looks back on events
saturated with the love
of our Lord Jesus,
impregnated with
prophesies being fulfilled
in His light and life:
Some, miraculous.
Some, endearing. Some, baffling.
Others, horrific.
A dizzying week.
A hill of execution.
A crucifixion.
But …
I believe that the
road to Golgotha began
in a feeding trough
where a virgin girl
gave birth to a baby boy
who already knew
the way.
© Marie Elena Good, 2022
He is risen, indeed!
There are the teachers
equipped with knowledge, and the
skills to impart it
There are the teachers
with a passion for learning
that is contagious.
There are the teachers
who delight in (and well-wield)
books, maps, and whiteboards.
I am gifted with
none of that. But I love, and
love assists learning.
© Marie Elena Good, 2022
pictured words 