Darkness seeps into our bones
Deep in winter.
In the midst of cold
We await the warmth of God’s tiny light
Struggling to be born
A new beginning for the ages
A baby, no, a man for all time
Against all odds
Against the decline of human history
Against the darkness seeking his demise.
Then suddenly, He is born. Christ is born today
Collapsing every Christmas in human history
In our lives and memory
Into this Christmas, this eternal now
Asking entrance once again.
Today he comes in stillness and night
Bearing unseen gifts of grace and truth, what we need, but dare not ask.
Many will never unwrap them nor have eyes to behold.
But some unexpectedly, suddenly, like the shepherds of old
Will see the glory all around and worship at his feet.
He asks: Give me your gift, your darkness, your unreachable place of pain.
Conflicted memories of Christmases past?
Rejection, isolation, broken dreams, vain wishes?
Never mind. He comes to take these and more, to redeem it all,
And will.
The human soul cries out: Can he do it for me?
He did. He has. He will… and he gives new life, the greatest gift of all.
But be still. Be quiet. He comes again in the vacant spaces of our souls
Seeking Bethlehem’s birth in us
Again.
