Living the Message Dec.25

The Pain (Christmas 1978)

... and a sword will pierce 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 pearl 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 force honesty,
as God reveals who they really are."

Luke 2:34bB-35