Saturday, September 06, 2008

What magic?


When I first read the following poem by Rabindranath Tagore, a philosopher and poet of India who lived in the mid 1800’s, I was so drawn in to the whelming love of this mother’s words for her child that it left me feeling like I had just risen from a cool swim on a hot day. Soul refreshment. Such anticipation and love. And then to contrast that to what I heard yesterday on Hank Hannegraph Bible Answer Man show, that the US had 2 million abortions last year; it leaves me speechless.
The Beginning

“Where have I come from, where did you pick me up?” the baby asked its mother.
She, half crying, half laughing, and clasping the baby to her breast,--
“You were hidden in my heart as its desire, my darling.
You were in the dolls of my childhood’s games; and when with clay I made the image of my god every morning, I made and unmade you then.
You were enshrined with our household deity; in his worship I worshiped you.
In all my hopes and my loves, in my life, in the life of my mother, you have lived.
in the lap of the deathless Spirit who rules our home you have been nursed for ages.
When in girlhood my heart was opening its petals, you hovered as a fragrance about it.
Your tender softness bloomed in my youthful limbs, like a glow in the sky before the sunrise.
Heaven’s first darling, twin-born with the morning light, you have floated down the stream of the world’s life, and at last you have stranded on my heart.
As I gaze on your face, mystery overwhelms me: you who belong to all have become mine.
For fear of losing you I hold you tight to my breast. What magic has snared the world’s treasure in these slender arms of mine?”
Photo by Audrey Vahrushew

2 comments:

Joseph Pulikotil said...

Hello Fred!

Very beautiful post!

Have good day!

FCB said...

Thanks Joseph, I was so taken by this piece; you see in our culture fewer and fewer women see mother-hood as a great vocation, blessing and God's highest calling. But in this piece, this person looked foward to the blessing from the time of her youth. The line- "You were hidden in my heart as its desire, my darling", is such a tender and loving thought. I feel this way about my grandkids. They have floated down the stream of the world's life, and at last they have stranded on my heart. What magic has snared the worlds' greates treasure and put them in my unworthy arms? Only God's gifts are of this magnitude.
God bless,
Fred