"Christmas Pondering" by Sr. Anne Brooks

WHAT WAS IT LIKE?



What was it like,


O God, Creator of the seemingly infinite universe,


to chose the Star of Bethlehem timeless eons before the earth was formed


so the length of those light years' distance


would be a perfect co-incidence for the birth of your Son?






And what was it like,


O amorphous cloud of interstellar gasses,


to birth a light-bearing mass from the inky-ness of the black-hole-depths of space


specifically to honor the King of Kings?



And what was it like,


O Sun,


to allow gravity to form, in this universe,


to rein in your planets,


to measure the perfect distance for life to form


and to hear God call you to rule over the Day on this yet-to-be perfect world


where God would walk in the cool of the evening, and later in the heat of the day?


And what was it like,


O World,


when people were formed from the mud of the earth,


molded by the loving hands of God,


life-breath transmitted into them by the Spirit of God,


interstellar dust in their sinews and bones,


and yet who failed to obey their Creator,


allowing evil to attempt to try to change civilization?


And you,


O Star of Wonder,


your light speeding through space,


what did you think of how the stage was being set


for a Redeemer


for these troubled and battered people?


And what was it like,


O Star, when that wondrous night finally arrived in the Fullness of Time?


Did you see His mom? Did you see Him? Was He cute?


And did He cry?


And did you dance for joy?


And you,


O Star of Night,


did you see the Magi pointing at you, night after night, mile after mile after mile?


And did you hear them murmuring about your beauty


and pondering your reason to be there?


and what did you think of that dangerous journey you guided them on


so they could see what you had seen?


And what has happened to you,


O Starlight, which reached our world that night?


You didn't go out, like the flame of a candle --


your source of Light continues burning on


Instead, you keep on shining even now, into our own lives,


giving our civilization an inheritance to treasure


so that we see the light tonight that saw God's only Son


and now we know that


we must look with God's Eyes


and listen with God's Ears


and love with God's Heart which is beating in our hearts


and do God's Work on this Earth in such a way


that it will become as bright as your light,


as eternal as your light


full of praise for God, Whose children we are


and who can live forever, endless as your light, eternal as our God...
Christmas, A.D 2011