"God is guiding foreigners to Christ to worship him, and he is doing it by exerting global--probably even universal--influence and power to get it done." -John Piper, December 8
It's this idea that the very universe, the cosmos, in all of its immensity, from the tiniest ant to the most distant galaxy, they all knew about this baby. While his own people did not receive him, his birth going unnoticed like just any other, every other member of the universe was waiting, expecting, and rejoicing.
The world was about the change forever. And it almost went by unnoticed...but the leaves, that night, rustled with a rumor. News rang out across the open fields. A song drifted over the hills. The wind whispered it softly in the sycamore trees, that waved their moonlit branches to the sky...The skies shouted it to the seas that thundered it to the waves that roared it to the great white whales that sang it to the starfish in the deep. And tiny sandpipers danced it on shining sands..."It's time, it's time!" The running rivers bounded over boulders and the otters clapped and played and sang to the ducklings that splashed and quacked to the salmon that leaped and leaped. And tiny field mice and insects and little creeping things and sparrows and robins and every single blade of grass squeaked and hummed and chirped and sang..."It's time, it's time!"
-Sally Lloyd-Jones, Song of the Stars
Car l’univers, oui l’univers cherchait l’enfant
Sans le savoir !
Les sangliers dans les fourrés suivaient leurs traces,
Les lièvres et les renards humaient leur piste,
Ils ont levé un épervier à tire d’aile
Et les fourmis se réveillaient d’un long sommeil.
Toutes les bêtes endormies sentaient l’approche
De ce qui s’en venait lentement en ce monde,
De ce juste avec un visage rajeuni
–car il était le père du premier Noël–
De cette femme frêle aux yeux cernés d’espoir,
Portant le sacrement des hommes sous sa robe
Conduisant doucement, tendrement, humblement
Son enfant vers son terme.
-Jean-Luc Gadreau, Noël aux Goélands
Excerpts from Psalm 104:
He set the earth on its foundations,
so that it should never be moved.
The mountains rose, the valleys sank down
to the place that you appointed for them.
to the place that you appointed for them.
You make springs gush forth in the valleys;
they flow between the hills;
they flow between the hills;
they give drink to every beast of the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell;
they sing among the branches.
they sing among the branches.
From your lofty abode you water the mountains;
the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
He made the moon to mark the seasons;
the sun knows its time for setting.
You make darkness, and it is night,
when all the beasts of the forest creep about.
when all the beasts of the forest creep about.
O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom have you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
In wisdom have you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
Here is the sea, great and wide,
which teems with creatures innumerable,
living things both small and great.
which teems with creatures innumerable,
living things both small and great.
These all look to you,
to give them their food in due season.
to give them their food in due season.
When you give it to them, they gather it up;
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
when you take away their breath, they die
and return to their dust.
when you take away their breath, they die
and return to their dust.
When you send forth your Spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.
and you renew the face of the ground.
May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in his works.
may the Lord rejoice in his works.
The ox knows its owner,
and the donkey its master's crib,
but Israel does not know,
my people do not understand.
and the donkey its master's crib,
but Israel does not know,
my people do not understand.
And the light shone in darkness and
Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled
About the centre of the silent Word.
-TS Eliot
Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled
About the centre of the silent Word.
-TS Eliot
For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
All these stories and songs and legends and folklores surrounding the animals at Jesus' birth, these aren't just cute and quaint and nostalgic tales for kids that sell well, they just very well might be the truth of the cosmos.
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