A well-crafted cradle awaited at home:
masterful hands turned each wood post with care,
expectant love sewn into bedding and quilt.
But the night he arrived, they were so far from there.
Summoned to journey to prove their allegiance
amidst rumors of vengeful tyrant kings,
they cleared dung from hay for a bed in a trough
and shelter from what the encroaching night brings.
Family back home would have gathered to welcome
with kettles and blankets of comfort to spare.
But here, only strangers followed cries in the fields
to a drafty hay barn, oh, so far from there.
This winter my heart is heavy and broken
amidst news of a vengeful tyrant king,
can’t rise to the joy on my twinkling bower
or wish for a chorus of angels to sing.
If I’m wanting for hope or assurance tonight
that the world turns towards peace and all that is fair,
I remember the family huddled in the hay
and all that they’d hoped for, so far from there.
—
Etching, The Adoration of the Shepherds with Lamp, Rembrandt, ca. 1654, collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
—
seeing god naked 