I read this poem at the 4:00pm family service this evening. It’s a beautiful reflection on the miracle of the Incarnation–a mystery that is surely impenetrable even to minds greater than our own.
I hope that in the quiet of this Christmas Eve you will consider that God did remain at a distance. The Christian tradition maintains that God came near, indeed that God became a man. The purpose? To rescue us from sin and death.
Descent
Luci Shaw
Down he came from up,
and in from out,
and here from there.
A long leap,
an incandescent fall
from magnificent
to naked, frail, small,
through space,
between stars,
into our chill night air,
shrunk, in infant grace,
to our damp, cramped
earthy place
among all
the shivering sheep.
And now, after all,
there he lies,
fast asleep.
Merry Christmas!
The Pastor's Study 