A Spring of Joy

One of the things I love about this Advent season is hearing the story of Christ’s birth told and re-told, sung and re-sung. (I am greatly missing that this year as our church hasn’t done it’s usual Advent series.) So I have been reading and re-reading, whether it’s through the Word or through books or poetry, I am filling my heart and mind with the beauty of this season. My friend, Monica, gave me an amazing book full of the writings of Luci Shaw and Madeleine L’Engle. Over the next few days, I’ll be posting some of my favorite passages by them in hopes that you will be as blessed as I have been.

O Simplicitas

An angel came to me
and I was unprepared
to be what God was using.
Mother I was to be.
A moment I despaired,
thought briefly of refusing.
The angel knew I heard.
According to God’s Word
I bowed to this strange choosing.

A palace should have been
the birthplace of a king
(I had no way of knowing).
We went to Bethlehem;
it was so strange a thing.
The wind was cold, and blowing,
my cloak was old, and thin.
They turned us from the inn;
the town was overflowing.

God’s Word, a child so small
who still must learn to speak
lay in humiliation.
Joseph stood, strong and tall.
The beasts were warm and meek
and moved with hesitation.
The Child born in a stall?
I understood it: all.
Kings came in adoration.

Perhaps it was absurd;
a stable set apart,
the sleepy cattle lowing;
and the incarnate Word
resting against my heart.
My joy was overflowing.
The shepherds came, adored
the folly of the Lord,
wiser than all men’s knowing.

(~Madeleine L’Engle)

The folly of the Lord, wiser than all men’s knowing! May I count it all joy to be God’s vessel even when it may seem foolishness to the world.