WISE WOMEN ALSO CAME
Wise women also came.
The fire burned in their wombs
long before they saw
the flaming star in the sky.
They walked in shadows,
trusting the path would open
under the light of the moon.
Wise women also also came,
seeking no directions,
no permission from any king.
They came by their own authority,
their own desire, their own longing.
They came in quiet, spreading no rumors,
speaking no fears
to lead to innocents slaughter,
to their sister Rachel's
inconsolable lamentations.
Wise women also came,
and they brought usual gifts:
water for labor's washing,
fire for warm illumination,
a blanket for swaddling.
Wise women also came,
at least three of them,
holding Mary in the labor,
crying out with her in the birth pangs,
breathing ancient blessings into her ear.
Wise women also came,
and they went, as wise women do,
home in a different way.
In this and every season
may we see them
the wise ones
who come bearing gifts to us.
They cloak themselves in garb that rarely draws attention,
but they are there
at the edge of the shadows,
in the margins of our days,
on the threshold of our awareness
offering what we most need.
Give us eyes to see them now,
before they have left
to go home in another way,
before we glimpse
their departing shadows edged in gold
and smell their spiced perfume
lingering behind them
in the air.
From: Night Visions: Searching the Shadows of Advent and Christmas by Jan L. Richardson
