In The Echoes Return Slow, Welsh poet R.S. Thomas, writes:
Town Christmases, country ones, sea Christmases are all transcended, perhaps, in nativities of the spirit. If one cannot have the lights and festivities of the town, one can celebrate the coming of three waves from afar, who fall down, offering their gifts to what they don’t understand.
"Nativities of the spirit,” echoes “laboratories of the spirit” found elsewhere in Thomas’s poetry, most prominently in his earlier book of the same name and at the close of the poem, “Emerging,” with which that collection begins:
Circular as our way is, it leads not back to that snake-haunted garden, but onward to the tall city of glass that is the laboratory of the spirit.
Thomas's reference to the magi as "three waves from afar, who fall down, offering their gifts to what they don’t understand” resonates with me during Advent. This striking image suggests we are capable of embracing the truth of the incarnation, even as we are limited in our ability to understand it. To paraphrase Saint Anselm, faith seeks understanding on the way to Bethlehem and beyond.
And when circumstances deny us the lights and festivities of the town, we can still celebrate the coming of three waves from afar. Like them, let us break upon the shore, offering our gifts to what we don’t understand.
From this week's edition of The Christian Citizen Weekly newsletter. Sign up today!
In The Echoes Return Slow, Welsh poet R.S. Thomas, writes:
Town Christmases, country ones, sea Christmases are all transcended, perhaps, in nativities of the spirit. If one cannot have the lights and festivities of the town, one can celebrate the coming of three waves from afar, who fall down, offering their gifts to what they don’t understand.
"Nativities of the spirit,” echoes “laboratories of the spirit” found elsewhere in Thomas’s poetry, most prominently in his earlier book of the same name and at the close of the poem, “Emerging,” with which that collection begins:
Circular as our way is, it leads not back to that snake-haunted garden, but onward to the tall city of glass that is the laboratory of the spirit.
Thomas's reference to the magi as "three waves from afar, who fall down, offering their gifts to what they don’t understand” resonates with me during Advent. This striking image suggests we are capable of embracing the truth of the incarnation, even as we are limited in our ability to understand it. To paraphrase Saint Anselm, faith seeks understanding on the way to Bethlehem and beyond.
And when circumstances deny us the lights and festivities of the town, we can still celebrate the coming of three waves from afar. Like them, let us break upon the shore, offering our gifts to what we don’t understand.
From this week's edition of The Christian Citizen Weekly newsletter. Sign up today!