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Dear folks, The Lord consistently remind you of His presence and transforming relationship in this season of preparation for His birth. A season for His birth and our rebirth. I have selected three poems that are very meaningful to me at this time from a collection of poetry my mother gave me two years ago – The Lion Christian Poetry Collection. Enjoy, be blessed, Holy is the Lord. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:1-4, 14. Warmly, In Christ, Jeremy Bell Salus Mundi
I saw a stable, low and very bare, A little child in a manger. The oxen knew him, had him in their care, To men he was a stranger. The safety of the world was lying there, And the world’s danger. Mary Coleridge 1861 – 1907 It is as if Infancy were the Whole of Incarnation
One time of the year the new-born child is everywhere, planted in madonnas’ arms hay mows, stables, in palaces or farms, or quaintly, under snowed gables, Goths angular or baroque plump, naked or elaborately swathed, encircled by Della Robbia wreaths, garnished with whimsical partridges and pears drummers and drums, lit by oversize stars, partnered with lambs, peace doves, sugar plums bells, plastic camels in sets of three as if these were what we need for eternity. But Jesus the Man is not to be seen. We are too wary, these days, of beards and sandalled feet. Yet, if we celebrate, let it be that he has invaded our lives with purpose, striding over our picturesque traditions, our shallow sentiment, overturning our cash registers, wielding his peace like a sword, rescuing us into reality, demanding much more than the milk and the softness and the mother’s warmth of the baby in the storefront crèche, (only the Man would ask all, of each of us) reaching out always, urgently with strong effective love (only the Man would give his life and live again for love of us). Oh come, let us adore him – Christ – the Lord. Luci Shaw 20th century Kid Stuff
The wise guys tell me that Christmas is Kid Stuff… Maybe they’ve got something there – Two thousand years ago three wise guys chased a star across a continent to bring frankincense and myrrh to a Kid born in a manger with an idea in his head… And as the bombs crash all over the world today the real wise guys know that we’ve all got to go chasing stars again in the hope that we can get back some of that Kid Stuff born two thousand years ago. Frank Horne 20th century |