He's here.

“And the glory of the Lord shone around them.” Luke 2:9

while mary and joseph were in the shack, 
ears full of baby cries, eyes wet: infant life.
God the Father was on the hillside. 
visiting with sheep. 
filling incoherence with light.
declaring through luminosity, “value,”
unto you, bearded men, who smell ripe
as a barn.
it was
awful.
fearful.
like our death.
unfair.
but it always is.
angelic voices speaking
what God's raging presence 
screams, weighing us with light.

and once in a while, we gather. letting the
warm candle light and christmas glow into 
our homes, filling with faces we don’t totally agree 
with anymore, but welcome still with a smell and a smile, 
carrying a gift wrapped mystery. we know not what will be, 
we only know that in the shed is the king of glory, and if it’s good enough 
for Him it’s good enough for me. this world is wrapped and waiting, though worn 
and fraying, and i’m looking for light in your eyes this time, wishing that the same thing that surprised me on the hillside, would surprise me again, inhabiting the humanity in front of me, alighting the dark with peace,
running into the shed, and in that fragile face, a king.
amen.