WHAT WAS GOD DOING WHEN HIS SON WAS BORN?
What was God doing?
What was He thinking
high up in His Heaven
when He sent the angel
to the virgin to tell her
about overshadowing
and childbirth
and salvation for the world?
What was God doing?
What was He thinking
high up in His Heaven
when in great anguish
Joseph didn’t believe his betrothed
and was about to call off their union
until in a dream he realized
they were a part
of an awesome and holy thing?
What was God doing?
What was He thinking
high up in His Heaven
when heavy with child
Mary traveled with Joseph
by donkey in the dust and hills
clip-clopping to Bethlehem
for the census
and once there,
there wasn’t a proper place
for them to stay
and time for the travail
had come?
What was God doing?
What was He thinking
high up in His Heaven
when in a cool cave
with livestock and hay
and dung and dampness
Joseph helped his wife
bring forth the Child
with rugged, splintered hands?
What was God doing?
What was He thinking
high up in His Heaven
when Joseph held the Babe
Heavenward, in thanksgiving
and blessing, then presented
Him to Mary,
who called Him, Jesus,
and nursed Him at her breast?
What was God doing?
What was He thinking
high up in His Heaven
when Mary wrapped Jesus
in swaddling cloths
and placed Him in fresh hay
her husband prepared
in the crude wooden trough?
What, oh what
was God thinking
looking down from His Heaven
upon His only begotten
born into the world
as the Least
and the Most?
What was God doing?
What was He thinking
high up in His Heaven?
Did He celebrate with the angels
before sending them Earthward
with their jubilant glorias
and triumphant trumpets?
Did His joy set ablaze
the beckoning star above Bethlehem?
Did He preen with pure pride
as shepherds and kings
came bearing their gifts?
Did He shudder an Almighty shudder
high up in His Heaven
at the movement toward fruition
of His cosmic plan?
Did He see flashes of thorns
and spikes and tree,
flashes of Blood
washing sin?
In the dark stillness,
as Joseph and Mary
fell into exhausted sleep,
did God reach quietly down,
chuck Jesus’ chin,
and whisper in His tiny ear,
“You have Your Father’s eyes,
My Son.”?
Maude Carolan
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