Written in 2002 while wrestling with injustices meted out to some inner city children I was working with. The resulting poem is from a christian perspective... but can be applied outside the christian context. It provokes us to look backwards and examine whether in the past our answers to the questions in the last verse is yes...

There was no beauty about them
But we only saw them through the eyes of men
They were scruffy, they were dirty
They were crude, they we cold
O my God, they were a sight to behold

But inside of these ones were precious treasures
For our Father poured in them gifts beyond measures
Where shall I send them to be refined
I will send them to a place of mine

So I'll send a bus load of them
To a place that I have chosen to be their friends
They will teach them about love and about Me
They will fight for their destinies on their knees

They labored and toiled but these rocks were hard
At times they wanted to give up and throw them afar
No don't give up, keep working with them
There is indeed treasures lying within

For only kind words can wash away
The dirt and the grime that surround them each day
And if they keep coming my power can
Possess them and carry them and make them stand

With time and patience you'll see what I see
That beyond the exeterior is a creation of me
Precious diamonds that needed to be mined
And you were my instruments to make them refined

Did we toil, did we labor, did we work with them
Did we wash them with the word as our Father said
Did we give them a chance to let his power play
Or did we these diamonds impatiently threw away. (Selah)

(c) K. L. McFarlane