This beautiful photograph from artist Raine Clarke might suggest the obvious to you, as it did to me. Take a moment with it if you can. Look at the edges, then allow yourself to be drawn back towards the light. Allow the artist/photographer to show you what they saw.
We pair this photo with an old poem by Chris, from a collaborative advent book ‘We still wait’. The poem is a fun look at what happens when a donkey meets an angel. What could say Christmas more than that combination?
Baalam’s Ass
Numbers 22:21-38
.
“Look! It’s there!
Can’t you see it?
Wings like thunderclouds
Eyes like searchlights
Robes spun from the last rays of the summer sun
It is either a fairy pumped up on steroids
Or a feckin’ Angel –
Not an allegorical one either.”
.
So it was that the living God
Sent a mighty Angel
To play hide and seek with a Donkey
So that a pagan sorcerer
Could speak out holy words
To confound all Israel.
.
And a whole sky-choir
Of heavenly creatures
Chuckled.
