During this season of Advent, we would like to share some short stories, scripture, poems and essays with you over the coming weeks regarding Jesus’s birth and the indescribable gift we have been blessed with should we chose to accept it. Today we are presenting a poem by Saint Augustine of Hippo. In this poem written some fifteen centuries ago, Augustine sought to capture the mystery of the incarnation.

Maker of the sun,

He is made under the sun.

In the Father he remains,

From his mother he goes forth.

Creator of heaven and earth,

He was born on earth under heaven.

Unspeakably wise,

He is wisely speechless.

Filling the world,

He lies in a manger.

Ruler of the stars,

He nurses at his mother’s bosom.

He is both great in the nature of God,

and small in the form of a servant.