When the days were completed for their purification
Luke 2:22
according to the law of Moses,
they took him up to Jerusalem
to present him to the Lord.
It was no mighty deed or work
but simply that he was,
the highest God come down to earth
to share our life with us:
Redeemed by two small turtledoves,
as any other boy,
yet prophets looked on him with love
and spoke of him with joy.
And suddenly, God was not far:
Christ to the temple came.
Not distant as the burning stars,
but near as candle flame.
Not shrouded e'er in fire and smoke,
but swaddled, cradled, near,
his blanket edge untucked and soaked
by an old man's happy tears.
So is creation born again,
so are all things made new,
by a wonder born in Bethlehem
whom prophets longed to view.
So every child bears God's own light
that shines in all there is.
For Christ has come to share our life
that we may share in his.
Prophecies of Simeon. Klosterneuburger Evangelienwerk, fol. 17v. By Unknown author – http://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/de/sbs/0008/17v, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42913070
Kate Bluett 