Blue homespun and the bend of my breast
keep warm this small hot naked star
fallen to my arms. (Rest …
you who have had so far
to come.) Now nearness satisfies
the body of God sweetly. Quiet he lies
whose vigour hurled
a universe. He sleeps
whose eyelids have not closed before.
His breath (so slight it seems
no breath at all) once ruffled the dark deeps
to sprout a world.
Charmed by dove’s voices, the whisper of straw,
he dreams,
hearing no music from his other spheres.
Breath, mouth, ears, eyes
he is curtailed
who overflowed all skies,
all years.
Older than eternity, now he
is new. Now native to earth as I am, nailed
to my poor planet, caught that I might be free,
blind in my womb to know my darkness ended,
brought to this birth
for me to be new-born,
and for him to see me mended
I must see him torn.

Theme: Magnifying the Lord

Have you ever been so excited that you couldn’t hold it in? Have you ever just had to laugh, or run, or sing, or shout? That is what happened to Mary. Our verses are the words of her song, called the magnificat, the first Latin word of the song in the old Latin translations. It is translated as “glorifies” or “magnifies.” Do you ever magnify anything? That’s what we do when we really enjoy or are interested in something and want to see it up closer. If we enjoy a really good movie, we love to talk about the funny parts over and over – we magnify it and glory in it. If we have a favorite kind of ice cream or candy, we enjoy eating it and thinking and talking about it – food, glorious food! Mary was that way about God’s plan to send Jesus. She thought about it and rejoiced. She was especially excited that God was going to end all the evil in the world someday – evil kings and politicians, the suffering of the poor, hunger – all tears will someday be wiped away. Can you take a few minutes to “magnify” the Lord? Praise Jesus for all the wonderful things he has done (e.g. forgiving our sins, giving us eternal life, his Spirit to comfort us), and all the wonderful things that will happen when he comes again.

Sunday I plan to preach on Luke chapter two, the first 20 verses.
Spurgeon writes—-“good tidings of great joy.” Earth’s joy is small, her mirth is trivial, but heaven has sent us joy immeasurable, fit for immortal minds. Inasmuch as no note of time is appended, and no intimation is given that the message will ever be reversed, we may say that it is a lasting joy, a joy which will ring all down the ages, the echoes of which shall be heard until the trumpet brings the resurrection; aye, and onward for ever and for ever. For when God sent forth the angel in his brightness to say, “I bring you good tidings of great joy, which be to all people,” he did as much as say, “From this time forth it shall be joy to the sons of men; there shall be peace to the human race, and goodwill towards men for ever and for ever, as long as there is glory to God in the highest.” O blessed thought! the Star of Bethlehem shall never set. Jesus, the fairest among ten thousand, the most lovely among the beautiful, is a joy for ever.

Theme: Leaping for Joy

What a happy meeting between Mary and Elizabeth! They were relatives, but we don’t know if Elizabeth was Mary’s cousin or maybe her aunt. Have you ever gotten together with your family and celebrated something wonderful? Well, when Mary and Elizabeth got together to celebrate the good news that Jesus was coming, even little baby John the Baptist got excited! Are you getting excited about Christmas? Tell the Lord about your joy. Did you know that he is excited about you and loves you more than you will  ever know? Rejoice in his love – you can even leap if you want!