Grace Came to Stay

Dear Readers, this Christmas Eve, with a grateful heart overflowing with the recognition of all of our family’s blessings, I’d like to offer you a few words from my heart. My family wishes for you peace, joy, and love. Please accept this verse as our Christmas gift to you and yours.

Grace Came to Stay

Sweet baby Jesus, Mary held you tight
your tiny hands clutching her fingers
your baby scent caressing her senses as she
breathed in the wonder of her first born son,
the promise of an angel asleep in her arms.
What did she know? What did she feel?
Run with this precious gift? Disrupt the plan
formed before ever the world was? And then grace
came, that marvelous grace and her aching heart eased.

Little boy Jesus, Mary watched you run and play.
She kissed your scratches. Did she know?
Did it not hurt to even consider the thoughts stirring inside?
What lay ahead for a child born of a virgin?
And then grace came, that marvelous grace and her
aching heart eased.

Young man Jesus; they called you names, lunatic,
crazy, Son of Joseph claiming to be deity.
What did your Mother’s heart feel, Mary?
How many times did his arms surround your shoulders before
grace would come, that marvelous grace and your
aching heart would ease?

Sacrificed lamb, Savior Jesus, Mary beheld you on
the cross. You were the Son of God, paying a bill
in full. How her heart must have broke to let go of your
humanity for you were also born of woman, Son of Man.
And then grace came, that marvelous grace and her
aching heart eased.

Risen Jesus, Resurrection Life, Mary watched
you ascend in the clouds.
Sweet Mary, waiting there in Jerusalem,
watching with the others,
aching for her firstborn son.
And then, just as the Father had promised,
Grace came to stay.

(John 16:5-7: But now I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you ask me, where are you going? But because I have said these things, sorrow hath filled your heart. …It is necessary that I go away; for if I go not away the Comforter will not come to you, but if I depart, I will send him unto you.)

Merry Christmas Hugs to you and yours, Shellie