CRISTMAS NIGHT II

CHRISTMAS NIGHT II

The God of heaven
was not as angry
as his fiery temper
exploded in Sodom;
now the God of heaven
smiled as he beheld
the young virgin
on the Nazareth dust.

God’s messenger was dispatched
in salvational haste
down through the cold clouds
into the warmth of a pure kitchen

where the angel greeted her
in words as strange-sounding
as the thunderous crack of dawn
at the creation of mud and spittle
bringing her the message
of the creation of Word and flesh.

God’s smile broadened
into a shinning star
lighting up a darkened stable
in a desolate speck
of a tiny nondescript country
where lay in a manger,
a simple eating trough,
a newborn child who one day
would become the risen Bread
and whose infinite radiance
dimmed the star
in the boldness of its brilliance –
a pledge as revealing
as it was fragile.

No loud crash of ocean
lapping with life
at the edge
of a smoldering planet,
only the quiet of soft snow
in this peopled re-creation.

No roar of wild beasts
setting foot on earth
for the very first time,
only the bleating of sheep
traversing behind shepherds
across the hard winter ground
the sting of winter in their eyes.

Upon that lonely cave-stable
on an isolated, peaceful hillside
in the vast, barren, magnificent
simplicity of new creation
God continued to smile
and his smile was named Jesus.