Unwrapped

It seemed
To me
That after Adam
And Eve
Took the fruit
From the Tree
The gift
Of heartfelt ease
Was boxed up
And locked with keys
As God surveyed
The present
Of his presence
And all the ensuing
Aftermath
He sadly smiled
And said
'It's a wrap'.

Maybe, then, for later.


And through the following
wayward ages
God
At times
In various stages
Alluded to the long forgotten gift
Described it, in hope
That hope of it
Would cause us to seek,
To heal the rift,

But each time
It was put before us
We sadly chose
To ignore trust
And left
The gift
Unopened
And,
Were it for us
that would be hopes end,

But at the advent
Of the promised gift
God showed us
what
was hidden in clenched fist,
We thought it there
To fight,
We knew not love, aright

That this hand,
'The holy arm
Of God laid bare'
Was God
Unwrapped
For us
To share
In the mercy of his stand
The fist became
Open hand
As gently
At first
It tugged on beards
And kneaded Mothers breast
And later pinned
To scaffold wood
Where it came
To surrenders rest

This was
the gift
Unwrapped
The back
Of sin
And law
was snapped
And love
laid bare
For all
To see,
The boundless love
The humility,

The gift was God, himself
Unwrapped
And taken down,
From Eden's shelf,

The Lonliest Christmas

I'm taking just a moment,
To be thinking of someone,
Who was alone this Christmas,
Who's only child is gone,

No ringing telephone for him,
No knock upon the door,
No one to sing carols with,
No one to talk of days of yore,

The nest is empty now,
His Son has gone away,
The loneliest time, he's ever known,
Has come this Christmas day,

No laughter, today, will fill his rooms,
No casual fireside chat,
The only one, who truly loved him,
Has left, and that is that,

So Spare a thought,
For Father God,
Who spent the first Noel,
Separated from his family,
So we wont go through hell,
The hell of being lonely,
For eternity and Amen,
He made, the ultimate sacrifice,
And gave up his son to die for men.

Alternative Carol Verses

1~

Violent night, Holy fright
All is screams, All is fight
Round Yon Virgin Mother there
2000 years until gas and air,
You wont be sleeping for weeks
You wont be sleeping for weeks

2~

How Silently, How silently
The Wondrous gift is given
The writer of this particular verse
Was surely, flipping kiddin'
He'd clearly never seen a real birth
Yes, he surely was a male,
in describing the noise of that experience
Any words would fail.



3~

The Cattle are lowing
The  poor baby awakes
If those Cows don't shut up
We'll be eating beef steaks.

 

The Overshadowing

Mary's body Was over shadowed
By the power
Of the Most high
What happened, within
The Nebulous shadow
Happened to her
Without a sigh
As woven in the secret
Deepest, Darkest place
The light was born
Of truth
And grace
That would soon eclipse
Us all,

And Mary
Took each bit
Of light
And shade
And Gathered it
To her soul

And, In that moment
Of Divine acceptance
Surrendered will
She, herself
was Over shadowed
By the light
Now growing
Glowing,
Starting to fill,
Her womb,
Her heart
Her world,

So many shadows
Yet to be unfurled,

And gathered round the manger,
On Bethlehem's brightest night,
An ominous darkness Overshadows,
Creeping in the corners
Of our sight,
The arrival of joy,
Resounds echoes of loss,
The guiding starlight casts over the manger
The Shadow of
The coming cross.

Empty Spaces

Christmas is full
Of gaps,

The gap between waking
And opening presents,
The space in your belly,
To be filled with Turkey
And Mince Pies,

The space, in the middle of a cracker,
The ever lessening gap,
Decreasing between your thighs,

The gap between unwrapping,
Underwhelming gifts,
And sincerest of thankful replies,

The gap between what we expect to receive
And that which actually arrives,

The gap between what we can afford to spend
And our budgets limitations

The gap between western wealth
and so many impoverished nations,

The space where compassion should be
For the homeless on our streets
When we blow a weeks wages
On trainers for our feet,

The space between the good that we want to do
And the resources at our dispense
The distance between family members
Kept by sitting on the fence,

But the biggest and most glaring gap
is the smallest one of all
The pin-head size gap
The microdot
Embedded in the uterus wall,
The virgins uterus wall,
The hopeless void into which
The Christ child stepped
To bridge the gap
For all.

The Invitation

We are holding
An open stable
Just moved in
To your neighbourhood
We'd like to invite you
To a Christmas table
We'd love you to come
Bad and Good

Come as you are
In onesy, tracksuit
Or Sunday best
Come, if you like,
In your birthday suit
You wont be under dressed

The guest of honour
will be naked too
If you pick him up
He may puke on you
He may poke your eye
And smell of poo
But he is completely
Accepting of you,

What's that you say,
How vulnerable you feel
When going to a strangers'
For a sit down meal
Well the son of God
Knows exactly how you feel
But dining at the stable
Being vulnerable’s the deal

But it's worth it for the food
And you wont ever be misconstrued

So Come all ye faithless
Broken and despondent
O Come ye,
O Come ye,
To Bethlehem.

Before

Before the foundation
was laid, The lamb,
Was slain, Proclaimed,
The great I am,

Before Moses,
Before Abraham,
Before Adam,
Gave a damn,

Before the problem,
The solution was formed,
Before the first skin,
was ever warmed,
Before the Sun,
was the custodian,
Of all that is old,
The new thing is done,
Before it unfolds,

In the Heart of God
It's finished,
it is done,
The ancient eyes
On what's to become,
Late in time,
Behold him, Son,
Before the battle
The fight is won,

And as Adam walked
In new felt shame,
The word, was as naked,
As candle flame,
The light was the life of men,
And we behold his glory,
Now as then,

He shone in the darkness
Not that darkness could understand
To give light to the whole house,
He put him on a stand,

In the beginning.