The Christmas Preface

There, in the hay’s warmth and the steaming sty,
The Word born to the frailty of flesh
Cracks our mortality with a weak cry
And seals our life within his endlessness.

The Word born to the frailty of flesh,
He lies wrapped in the cloths of mystery,
And seals our life within his endlessness,
In infant finitude eternity.

He lies wrapped in the cloths of mystery,
The straining of small limbs, unopened eyes.
In infant finitude, eternity
And love invisible we recognize.

The straining of small limbs, unopened eyes
Draw us from torchlight to the light of glory,
And love invisible we recognize
Shaping the child’s dream of the Christmas story.

Draw us from torchlight to the light of glory.
Crack our mortality with a weak cry,
Shaping the child’s dream of the Christmas story,
Here in the hay’s warmth and the steaming sty.

—James Matthew Wilson

Image by Puccio di Simone on Picryl licensed via Creative Commons. Image cropped.

Next
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Does Just War Doctrine Require Moral Certainty?

Edward Feser

Pope Leo XIV has made it clear that the U.S. war on Iran does not, in his…

The Church of David Bowie

John Duggan

David Bowie and the Search for Life, Death and Godby peter ormerodbloomsbury, 256 pages, $28 Thirty-four years…

Finding a Pulse 

Michael Hanby

Trueman’s new book, The Desecration of Man, should further cement his authority. It supplements, focuses, and in…