wordsout by godfrey rust
The sailing of the ark  < 30 of 45



30

"Fear not" the herald said—yet until then
I think the shepherds were quite unconcerned.

Cold, perhaps, or quarrelsome, or bored, but not
expecting anything to happen, and anxious

only for the usual domestic reasons. What scared them
was the sight of their clean, familiar sky ripped open

by beings from another dimension,
brilliant with the news that God

has become a man, and is quite unlike
anything that we expected—this is something

to be afraid of, this rude intrusion 
into the world we thought we had created:

the owner has turned burglar, breaking in
to steal our Chubb-locked hearts, and throw the keys
     away.


Fear not cf Luke 2:10.

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