Pondering these things

I'm off to a slow start getting my mind around the new year, getting the kids back to school and myself back to teaching. And finding additional work to help make ends meet. And...well, suffice it to say that there are lots of things filling my time and keeping me from blogging as much as I'd like to. But I've been wanting to post this since I first heard it as a liturgical reading in my church last Christmas season. Since it was used again this past Sunday, and I have the text in front of me, I'd like to share it now... "Pondering These Things" by Gay Hadley Neighbors said it first. Surely this child belongs to someone else. Mary, too, when she held him, sang him to sleep, watched his deep brooding eyes, wondered where he came from. We ponder our children, blessed or not, depending on our point of view. We are afraid for the ones who are different, who talk early, speak with a shivering wisdom. We fear the world will be afraid and we know we may lose them, not understanding why, except to think they must belong to someone else.