My family and the places I love

 This is a draft of a poem that I would like to have some conversation about. I think it might be theologically divisive for some and I'd like discussion. I like debate and conversation, so here it is:

My family and the places I love

hang on that tree

as sacrifice.

Burning in the streets of Oxford,

drowning in the Salmon, Pacific, River Exe,

or shining angelic in a tear drop,

painted on the globe of our existence.

Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Florida,

Alaska, England, Libya, Canada,

Germany, Italy—all of them hanging

on that evergreen tree.

Even my sons through all their years

sacrificed for eternity

living ever in that ultimate

sacrifice that we might live.

All of us together jeering

while shepherds watched,

angels sang and He cried,

“My God, my God, why

hast Thou forsaken me?”

Swaddled in rags and laid

in a manger with a stone rolled over

it all for you and me.