Hound of Heaven Hymns - Beyond comprehension

Poetry list, Christmas

Beyond comprehension

Below the lights and tinsel
lies another world
which we are keen to deny
and smother in any way we can.
Snow does it, our hearts and minds
long to…
Forget – as much as you can –
pretend, cover up and escape –
if only for a day or two.

The manger is rough and splintered,
the stable cold and bare,
the parents displaced
and far away from home.

The Christ comes to our dis–ease,
our pain and insecurity;
he is born amongst strangers
in a land invaded by a distant power.

Our hearts and minds are no different.

Yet love fills the vacuum of the interim
barrenness of meaninglessness, despair
and abandonment.

Fear is the fuel of our needy coldness
and there in its terrifying grip –
God is born
– to journey to your grave and mine.
Hope reaches out from tomorrow
and eternity.

This story is not to be understood
but to overcome every other
thought and certainty.
A distant birth is a present friend
– there is no moment or place but this one
which takes us beyond all that is
to all that shall be.

There is but one change, one response:
believe and trust – risk
that life is more than this
because love is born in the darkness.

And the darkness comprehends it not.