In the dark, a child might ask, What is the world?
just to hear his sister
promise, An unfinished wing of heaven,
just to hear his brother say,
A house inside a house,
but most of all to hear his mother answer,
One more song, then you go to sleep.
How could anyone in that bed guess
the question finds its beginning
in the answer long growing
inside the one who asked, that restless boy,
the night’s darling?
Later, a man lying awake,
he might ask it again,
just to hear the silence
charge him, This night
arching over your sleepless wondering,
this night, the near ground
every reaching-out-to overreaches,
just to remind himself
out of what little earth and duration,
out of what immense good-bye,
each must make a safe place of his heart,
before so strange and wild a guest
as God approaches.
~Li Young Lee “Nativity Poem”
As alone as we may feel during this odd time
without the comfort of ones we love now near,
as separate as it is without shared meals and laughter,
there is one thing a virus can’t take from us:
we are the shelter for God comes newborn
we are the womb He seeks
we are the safe place hidden from the storms of the world
and He grows here in our hearts –
invited and wild and strange –
so nurtured and so nurturing.
No presents, no candy, no treat
No stockings hung by the fire
No parties, no family to greet
No angel’s heavenly choirs
Bells are ringing all over the world
Bells are ringing calling the light
Bells are ringing all over the world
All over the world tonight
No doorways, no windows, no walls
No shelter here on the ground
No standing and no safe place to fall
Just the promise of this distant sound
Bells are ringing all over the world
Bells are ringing calling the light
Bells are ringing all over the world
All over the world tonight
Wherever you’re walking tonight
Whoever you’re waiting for
Somehow by the stable’s faint light
Peace in your heart is restored
Bells are ringing all over the world
Bells are ringing calling the light
Bells are ringing all over the world
All over the world
Bells are ringing all over the world
Bells are ringing calling the light
Bells are ringing all over the world
All over the world tonight
~Mary Chapin Carpenter
Barnstorming 
Mysteries, as this event was (and still ‘is’) can be confusing — even shattering — when told and re-told in simple, easy-to-process thoughts for our finite human brains to grasp.
Emily, your perfect concept of …’the womb He seeks…’ also brought to my mind the image of that young teenage Jewish girl, Mary, and her acceptance and, with it her
commitment, to say ‘yes,’ — the very first to do so. What a monumental test of faith. She followed her ‘yes’ and her caring love to the end — right up to Calvary as
her Son’s sacred ravaged body was gently laid in her arms — from swaddling wraps to bloody nakedness. It is thoughts and words that you use in your offerings, Emily, that bring to us readers new insights that heighten our faith beliefs and bring sweetness and holiness to our world-weary souls.
Thank you!
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