Leaning

Guest Room Of The Heart

Not the squalor of a borrowed stable
But with joyful welcome in the human heart,
I will welcome him with all I'm able,
Though my gifts could barely make a start,

To pay my homage to the King of Heaven,
Not with Frankincense, myrrh or Gold,
But with the simplicity that I am able,
Take this baby to my heart, to hold,

Though you cannot be contained by heaven,
It is in us that you come to dwell,
Never ever will you leave, forsake us,
God with us, our Immanuel,

With all the clutter and the mess at Christmas,
We remember the child in Mary's womb,
Remember that the 'King that came', is coming,
Let every heart prepare him room.

Reflection: Leaning

I was inspired to write this one by Stuart Townend's modern hymn:  From The Squalor of a Borrowed Stable. From it I borrowed a little more than inspiration. I will happily accept the charge that this poem is highly derivative. I also borrowed, as well as most of the first line,  the meter and ABAB rhyme structure. But it was a good place to start. If you try you could sing my verses over parts of the tune too.

The basic premise is very simple. It is to allow the nativity to be a story to which we respond personally. It is our heart, rather than the preoccupied Bethlehem, or the humble stable that now should welcome him. It is to give him the gift of yourself (In The Bleak Mid-winter) rather than the gifts of the magi.

If I remember rightly I wrote this under some pressure, hving written so much on the subject already, and I think I had a deadline to meet, as it was for a carol service. This resonates with me today, as,  while I write this, I have a poem to write for this years carol service too.

What I did was to lean on the tropes of other writers. There is creativity involved. I made my own rhymes. I joined the dots. 

But I suppose looking at this now, I see that sometimes it is okay to be carried by another's words. To find solace in time held truths. Even if they have become cliche's. I will be the first to admit they do not always make the best art, but we are a body. A family. And we sustain and support each other. 

Maybe then this can be an example of how we can lean into each other when we need to, rather than an example of great poetry.

If you're tired, or dry or spent, then lean in to the timeless truths in scripture an din the 'old songs'. Let them do the work, and pray for them to be a means of God's grace to you.

~Scripture~

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

~Matthew 11:28-30~