The
Pain of Christmas
.
. . and a sword will pie
rc
e through your own soul also, that thoughts out of many hearts may be
revealed. (Luke 2:35)
The bawling of babies, always
in a way
Inappropriate—why should the loved and innocent
Greet existence with wails?—is proof that not all
Is well. Dreams and
deliveries never quite mesh.
Deep hungers go unsatisfied,
deep hurts
Unhealed. The natural
and gay are torn
By ugly grimace and curse. A
wound appears
In the place of ecstasy. Birth
is bloody.
All pain’s a prelude: to
symphony, to sweetness.
“The p
earl
began as a pain in the oyster’s stomach.”
Dogwood, recycled from cradle to cross, enters
The market again as a yoke for easing burdens.
Each sword-opened side is the matrix for God
To come to me again through travail for joy.
“This child marks both the failure and
the recovery of many in
Israel
,
A figure misunderstood and contradicted—
The pain of a sword-thrust through you—
But the rejection will fo
rc
e honesty,
As God
reveals who they really are.”
Luke 2:34b-35.
(A poem by Eugene Peterson
from Living
the Message)
For
all who have experienced loss of any kind and who grieve in this Season
of Advent, The Longest Night Service, on Wednesday, December 21st
at
7 PM
, can be a place of comfort and healing.
Pastor George
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