Four Stanzas for the 445th
I took a week off from posting reflections. By my estimation, I had submitted my 444th entry over the past twenty months. I started in April after the pandemic had been declared and people were adjusting their circulation in society. My first 142 scribblings were under the series title, “Embracing Hope”. Then came 161 in a second series called, “Encouragement Along the Way.” The current series, “Strengthening Connections” reached 141 volumes on December 11. So, I thought to myself, if I were to let go of my habit of nearly daily writing, perhaps the four hundred and forty-fourth piece is the place to put the stopper back in the inkwell.
Today, I am thinking otherwise. This discipline of writing, I have discovered, benefits me. Somehow, I don’t feel right when I step away from getting my thoughts down on the page. I am grateful beyond description for the privilege of having a place, for posting my reflections, and for having people who wish to stop in to read. Our rector has graciously afforded the opportunity. So, here goes a 445th post.
For today, I would like to dust off a poem for the season that I wrote in December of 2007. The meter goes with a lesser-known hymn tune by Orlando Gibbons, a 16th-17th century composer. It appears in Hymn 346 of our hymnal set to the tune with the catchy title, Song 4. Here are the lines:
In Bethlehem a stable, not an inn,
plays host unwittingly to God Most High.
The birth of tiny Jesus, there, did win
for us new life: God-with-us, ever nigh.
It far outstrips our power to comprehend
that God should send his only Son, the Word.
he clung not to his throne, but did descend.
So, angels sang the news that shepherds heard.
Within a wooden manger, once, was placed
this human true, yet very God, the Son.
There, surely, as upon the cross, he graced
and saved us, making earth and heaven one.
Our life is thus secure, not just for now,
but to eternity: he’ll be our stay.
and though we struggle in this life, we bow,
adoring him and walking in his way.
(DWP+, Dec. 2007)