Immanuel: When God Draws Near

When God Draws Near

 

When God draws near
People Sing,
Zechariah,
The Angels
Mary, Magnifying,
Souls exploding
Gushing Forth
Rejoicing
Blessing
Glorifying,


Those moments
When rocks would cry out
If he had not just softened
The rocks into flesh


When we sat down and wept
Believing we were abandoned
Our captive hearts were like
Lifeless stone
Sunk, in the rivers
Of Babylon,


But when God draws near
There is singing,
What will be my song?
Is my heart still granite
In exile
Abandoned, by the waters
Of Babylon?


When Immanuel comes
What will be my Song?
In this,
The latest
Incarnation,
You've shown
You've been here
All along,

Never will you leave me
Nothing will cause you to forsake
Your exiled children,
In the desert
Nothing will make you break
Your promise,


Immanuel
God with us
Through waters
And through Flame
O come to us
O dwell in us
forever more the same.

Reflection: Immanuel

This poem is a bit of an anomaly amongst my advent poems. I wrote it in response to a devotional shared that day by Pete Greig on the 24/4 Lectio app. Pete Greig was talking about the place of grief, and how the exiled in Babylon (Psalm 137) were unable to sing and the sense of separation from God that they must have felt. He observed that wherever the presence of God is, when he draws near, it so often results in Singing. He then pivoted back to the Magnificat of Mary, who sings in delights at God  honouring her, by choosing her to be his vessel. And what a response that was. The choice that had been made was to catapult her into social shame and scrutiny. Her life was not to be simple as a result and yet she rejoices. Her soul, she sings, magnified the Lord.

Immanuel, Jesus' advent, was God's sign that he was with us. That he would always be with us. That we will always have occasion to sing. And for me, reflecting in these verses, I take solace that all his promises are yes and amen. That he will never leave us, nor forsake us.

Amen.