while shepherds watched

[gentle_edgar]

1st day of Christmas; was going to be for gen_drabble, but i couldn't bear to cut it down to size.

*

It comes like the ending of the world: the sky splits open---open, so that the things behind the stars are visible. Beings formed of solid light spill down, singing music like mountains of sound, like the sea or the sky itself, so hugely it rings

Comments

[trishkafibble]

So beautiful and powerful and exactly right. The angels are always saying "fear not"--because yes, the truly transcendent, undisguised, has got to be terrifying!!

[bratfarrar]

I wrote this during/after a sermon on the glory of God and how necessary it was that Christ come "veiled in flesh" because we wouldn't have been able to bear it otherwise--which in turn made me think, as you say, of the angels' consistently greeting people with "fear not", and what about them might necessitate that.

[trishkafibble]

And that's one of the many amazing things about God--that He comes to meet us with such humility, only ever setting aside that veil for a few moments, and only at those times when His message might otherwise not be made plain.

My best wishes for you and yours in this Christmas season! Merry Christmastide and a blessed New Year!!

[bratfarrar]

And the same to you and yours! May the upcoming year be filled with good things and God's visible grace.

[violeteyedcat]

Your "worlds not mine" tag made me giggle. It also made me think about what possession we could ever have of 'reality', a world over which we have no true control but what is granted to us. Hmmms. (this is what happens when you read a ton of Calvin)

[bratfarrar]

...well, it isn't. Which I am reminded of quite frequently. And I don't have a tag for 'real events' and don't write that sort of thing with enough frequency to need it, so....

Oh, the difficulties of creating a classification system.

:P

[kriadydragon]

That was lovely :D

[bratfarrar]

Thank you--although I suspect it doesn't even begin to do justice to the reality.