Today's poem is by the seventeenth century Scottish poet, William Drummond of Hawthornden, and is called The Wonder of the Incarnation'. Unfortunately I haven't managed to find it online, so am hoping that reproducing it here isn't in breach of copyright (in theory it shouldn't be given he's long dead)
To spread the azure canopy of heaven,
And make it twinkle with those spangs of gold,
To stay the ponderous globe of earth so even,
That it should all, and naught should it, uphold;
To give strange motions to the planets seven,
Or Jove to make so meek, or Mars so bold,
To temper what is hot, dry, moist, cold,
Of all their jars that sweet accords are given:
Lord, to thy wisdom's naught; naught to thy might.
But that thou shouldst (thy glory laid aside)
Come meanly in mortality to abide,
And die for those deserved eternal plight,
A wonder it is far above our wit
That angels stand amazed to muse on it.
And the prayer...
God who created the heavens,
Who knows and names every star and every planet,
Who set our earth in orbit just the right distance from its sun
So that life might emerge, and flourish, and thrive -
And then did not abandon us to the consequences of our sin and finitude
But became mortal to restore all life -
Help us be content to wonder anew.
Amen
