play, peace and a poem

We're back. And, it was not an easy drive. Thanks be to God, everything else was remarkably easy. The photo was taken night before last in KY. My hope tonight is for my family, at least for a few moments, to go to that stable "...when peaceful stillness compassed everything..." (Wisdom 18:14). Here is a poem from Richard Wilbur from my Magnificat. It is called "A Christmas Hymn":

And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master rebuke thy disciples.

And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.

St. Luke 19:39-40

A stable-lamp is lighted

Whose glow shall wake the sky:

The stars shall bend their voices,

And every stone shall cry.

And every stone shall cry,

And straw like gold shall shine;

A barn shall harbor heaven,

A stall become a shrine.

This child through David's city

Shall ride in triumph by;

The palm shall strew its branches,

And every stone shall cry.

And every stone shall cry,

Though heavy, dull, and dumb,

And lie within the roadway

To pave his kingdom come.

Yet he shall be forsaken,

And yielded up to die;

The sky shall groan and darken,

And every stone shall cry.

And every stone shall cry

For stony hearts of men:

God's blood upon the spearhead,

God's love refused again.

But now, as at the ending,

The low is lifted high;

The stars shall bend their voices,

And every stone shall cry.

And every stone shall cry

In praises of the child

By whose descent among us

The worlds are reconciled.

O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel