I.
Listen.
Shh.
Be still.
Something in the wind,
great and beautiful,
about to be,
Faint. Yet steady.
A murmured promise.
A prophetic heartbeat.
Listen.
Do you hear?
Turn your heart.
Incline with your soul.
Let your spirit rise.
Yearnings. Longings. Fulfilments at last!
Listen.
Do you hear?
Still distant—on the horizon,
but nearer—oh so near—
On your threshold.
At my door.
Knocking to enter in.
Advent eager,
whispering hope,
softly saying,
“Soon!”
II.
Look.
Intently, please.
Come perceive with me.
Do you see?
Arrival!
Epiphany!
Appearing!
Here!
Do you see?
Majesty swaddled in modesty.
Lordship cradled in straw.
Salvation gurgling to cry.
Infinity and universe
captured in this place
and in this moment
and set here before us.
Do you see?
Unimaginable, temporally imaged.
Intangible infinity, yet touchable.
Inconceivable, but conceived
and birthed just like you;
just like me.
Do you see Who I see?
Behold Him.
Higher Power,
Lowly Guest.
III.
Pause.
Take it in.
Let sense awaken.
And truly know.
Do you know?
A must-have discovery.
A life-forming enlightenment.
A heart-borne wonderment.
Do you know?
Impossible, yet indispensable.
Clandestine awareness.
Mysterious understanding.
Paradoxical truth.
A kind of unlearning.
Uncontainable. Inscrutable.
Unfathomable. Impenetrable.
Yet simple and delicious.
Can you grasp these marvels?
Fleeting flashes of reality.
Slipping through the fingers of your mind.
Yet always yours to ponder again.
Do you know?
How wide and how high?
And how long and how deep?
More than you could ever ask or imagine.
IV.
Speak forth.
Give a word, please.
Proclaim what must be told.
Bear witness.
Give testimony.
This story must sing out.
Speak it.
Yes, even in weakness,
even through stammer and stutter.
In the midst of mistakes and missteps,
in the face of faults and failings.
I am hearing Promise.
I am seeing Redeemer.
I am knowing Mystery.
And I am announcing Truth.
I am not the message.
The message is in me.
He who has been delivered now delivers me,
back to Himself,
to myself,
and to you.
I declare the tidings now:
“Come Around!”
“Embrace the Divine Entrance!”
“Enter the Divine Embrace!”
“Rejoice!”
I say it again: “Rejoice!”
© 2022 David B. Roberts