When I am in Florida in the winters, I attend a weekly group
(about 20+) which begins with some Biblical readings, then goes on to discuss
thoughts that the reading stimulates.
Our discussions range widely and sometimes become controversial, but we
all enjoy them and feel enriched by the varied perspectives. Last year at the meeting before the
Christmas break we had a poem whose author was unknown, the group was awed by
it and I now wish to share it. If anyone
recognizes it and can identify the author please let me know, I would love to
give him or her credit.
A Christmas Prayer
On that holy night,
Somehow,
It happened.
Somehow,
God took a handful of
humanity:
Proud, petulant,
passionate;
And a handful of
divinity:
Undivided,
inexpressible, incomprehensible:
And enclosed them in
one small body.
Somehow, the all too
human
Touched the divine,
And was not
vaporized.
To be human was never
the same,
But forever
thereafter,
Carried a hint of its
close encounter with the perfect.
And forever
thereafter,
God was never the
same,
But carried a hint of
the passion of the mortal.
If God can lie down
in a cattle-trough,
Is any object safe
from transformation?
If peasant girls can
be mothers to God,
Is any life safe from
the invasion of the eternal?
If all this could
happen, O God,
What places of
darkness on our earth
Are pregnant with
light waiting to be born this night?
If all this could
happen, O God,
Then you could be,
and are, anywhere, everywhere,
Waiting to be born
this night in the most
Unbelievable places,
Perhaps even in our
own hearts.
Amen
