Christmas Reflections

After being polite and well-behaved through a day of three extended family celebrations, my grandson Gabe fell asleep in a chair on Christmas Eve. We were blessed with some wonderful times of family fellowship celebrating the miracle of God with us.

Reflecting on Christmas, the two terms that stick with me are "Incarnation" and "Immanuel." Both emphasize the miracle of God cloaking His divinity with human flesh and dwelling with us.

I recently wrote the following poem, which appeared in the Christmas issue of Christian Renewal:

First Snow

Now wash me
and I shall be--
the old-time
favorite rhymes,

while sunlight
on first snow
dazzles eyes
long blind.

Spirit-directed vision
plucks spars—
optimally opens—
and the eye perceives:

Mud and snow,
rags and linen,
dimly reflect
dirt and divinity.

But in a stable,
divinity cloaked
itself in
dirt.

On a cross,
rags washed in
blood became
linen.

Then first snow
becomes a nival
primer on nativity.