Christmas In Heaven
HOW hushed they were in Heaven that night,
How lightly all the angels went,
How dumb the singing spheres beneath
Their many-candled tent!
How silent all the drifting throng
Of earth-freed spirits, strangely torn
By dim and half-remembered pain
And joy but newly born!
The Glory in the Highest flamed
With awful, unremembered ray--
But quiet as the falling dew
Was He who went away.
So swift He went, His passing left
A low, bright door in Heaven ajar--
With God it was a covenant,
To man it seemed a star.
A Christmas Child
SHE came to me at Christmas time and made me mother, and it seemed
There was a Christ indeed and He had given me the joy I'd dreamed.
She nestled to me, and I kept her near and warm, surprised to find
The arms that held my babe so close were opened wider to her kind.
I hid her safe within my heart. 'My heart' I said, 'is all for you,'
But lo! She left the door ajar and all the world came flocking through.
She needed me. I learned to know the royal joy that service brings,
She was so helpless that I grew to love all little helpless things.
She trusted me, and I who ne'er had trusted, save in self, grew cold
With panic lest this precious life should know no stronger, surer hold.
She lay and smiled and in her eyes I watched my narrow world grow broad,
Within her tiny, crumpled hand I touched the mighty hand of God!
