Do You Know Why?

Leopold Kupelwieser, The Journey of the Three Kings, 1825  

Baby Born on Christmas

Lo, the baby born on Christmas~

    Sisters, hear the sound
of angels singing Alleluia~
    angels all around
He is sweet as Heaven’s
    meadows, flourishing,
fed by living water.
    Save, O sacred spring,
the brittle hope that clings like
    petals to the dry
rose; and we sing Alleluia~
    Do you know why?

Lo, the baby born in winter
    in a barren land;
Brothers, can you see the tender
    growth upon the sand?
Death is in possession
    of the frozen ground;

yet the angels carol~
    angels all around.
Glory, Alleluia,
    is their lullaby.
We, too, sing him Alleluia~
    Do you know why?

Underneath the fragile
   surface of the lake,
creatures keep their vigil;
   soon the land will wake
fertile seeds, at rest before
   their season has begun,
sleeping until morning,
   waiting for the sun.

Life does not surrender
   when the dry leaves, stung
by frigid fingers, flutter,
   yielding one by one.
When the wind blows bitter
   o’er the frozen earth,
Life comes new in winter
   with the baby’s birth.

We are born anew then,
   clean and fresh as morning;
of the past unburdened,
   everything forgiven;
born and born again yet
   seventy times seven.
As often as we seek it,
   living Grace descends.

Baby born in winter,
   Children, this we celebrate
on Christmas, for his innocence
   is born in us today.

by Mary Campbell, 2008

Available as a Christmas card on Annagrammatica.com