The Nativity of our Lord

"But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman...." (Galatians 4:4)

This is the first time since Christmas of 1992 that we will not be travelling to Louisiana. I went to pick Heather's dad up at the airport last night. Matt and Margo are here in PA with Matt's family for a few days then they will come over and join us. Ryan and Suzanne are in Kansas and will be unable to join us in PA (Ryan has just started a new job in Boulder).

Christmas and New Year (for different reasons) are always a contemplative time for me, a time of reflection, of being drawn into the great mystery of the Incarnation, of life, of looking inward, looking outward, looking forward. What we celebrate today and every year is a miracle beyond comprehension. Emmanuel, God with us!

Here is a poem by Denise Levertov entitled, The Mystery of the Incarnation.

It's when we face for a moment
the worst our kind can do, and shudder to know
the taint in our own selves, that awe
cracks the mind's shell and enters the heart:
not to a flower, not to a dolphin,
to no innocent form
but to this creature vainly sure
it and no other is god-like, God
(out of compassion for our ugly
failure to evolve) entrusts,
as guest, as brother,
the Word.

Merry Christmas