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BY ED NORTHEN You can’t set up walls to confine the divine limit the sacred
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This photo symbolizes a journey or pilgrimage down a not-so-smooth road
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While the feast of Hanukkah was being was celebrated in ornate temples in Jerusalem
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Christmas is about bringing light into the world.
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the true miracle was traveling In the womb of a betrothed girl from Nazareth to Bethlehem
Incarnation is on no one’s mind except two impoverished travelers perhaps wondering, doubting
at the truth of the visitations even with the evidence of the swollen belly.
Realms seen and unseen are disconnected by ordinariness where was the angel now?
Where was the miracle of oil lamps burning the physical manifestation of God
Nothing extraordinary happens on the journey no provision of heavenly manna no Angels intervene
even when labor pains are present human compassion is absent there was money to be made
there is no miracle of a painless birth no comfort of a midwife or family not even a bed
desperate the couple is alone except for the pigs, cows And cold night air
None of this seems divine except a hint, when the shepherds visit with strange proclamations of angels
and the good news of a savior born this is the mystery of ethereal realms eternal omniscience in a helpless child
is the way of eternal matters Editor’s Note: Take note how Ed Northen incorporated the miracle of the oil and burning candles into this Christmas poem since Hanukkah and Christmas fall on the same day this year.
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