In the Midnight Clear (Light Finds You)

Photo by Neneqo Fotógrafo

A Poem by Deborah Rutherford


1. 

Messiah, Messiah,

trembled lips:


in the empty wilderness;


whispers wisped by wellsprings

as sandals pressed into the somber desert;

on a pasture hillside,

speckled with close-knit flocks 

a shepherd carried an ewe

under the unbound empyrean.


2.

Oh, come, oh come ye, Immanuel.


3.

On lowly, sad plains in the midnight clear,

humble shepherds tended their flocks

under a star's brilliance.

Through cloven skies, with harps of gold

reached Angels bringing Good Tidings of Joy,

"A Savior is Born."

Love wrapped the weary world 

one silent night,

wide as the liminal space, 

the in-between, a threshold to Cross 

because God so loved the world,

Messiah, Messiah.


4.


There was no room in the inn,

only a stable's dark with a manger.

A mother's face glistened

in a babe King's glow 

among the gentle ox and lamb.

A King's palace 

where hay hung as royal curtains, 

with jewels in the sky, 

and robes of swaddling cloth, 

regal all the same.


The shepherds hastened to Bethlehem 

and found their King 

swathed in swaddling cloth: 

God of Love, 

Incarnate,

Miracle of Salvation:

Messiah, Messiah.



5.

Mary pondered all that had happened: 

the wonder from her womb 

birthed like you and me,

God in human flesh stretching 

His little toes and fingers,

our Maker's first cry. 

Holding her baby,

the Christ, Messiah for all,

she kissed the face of God, 

her sleeping child, 

The Great I am.



6.

For God so loved the world: 

Immanuel, 

the greatest gift of all 

in the darkest moment of all.

When you are searching in the dark

the Light finds you.


Deborah Rutherford, a poet, embarks on a journey sharing the wonder of God through the unusual and the ordinary, finding God everywhere. She has found solace and redemption from childhood and young adulthood trauma through Jesus and writing. Bringing her stories out of the dark into the light has been life-saving and illuminating. She is the founder of the Behold-Her Beauty Blog & Podcast at www.deborahrutherford.com. Her poetry and writing have been published in the Way Back to Ourselves, Vessels of Light, Aletheia Today, and the Calla Press, Literary Journal Spring 2024. Deborah is currently working on her debut poetry collection with Editor-in-Chief Kimberly Phinney of the Way Back To Ourselves.


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