I wrote this meditation a few years ago. May it bless you this season as we remember the messy, marvelous humility and love of the one who came “not in water only, but in water and in blood” (1 John 5:6).

 

 

 

Blood and water outward burst

a sudden stab – his mother cried

and felt again the pain that first

brought forth this man with punctured side

 

This pain, these tears, this bloody flow

that mark his dark and dreadful death

had filled that stable long ago

he cried with her with his first breath

 

Upon the cross again he wailed

the Son of God, of God forlorn

before his mother’s eyes impaled

as naked as when he was born

 

The heavenly host that hailed his birth

he would not call to end his pain

the angel choirs forget their mirth

as Bethlehem’s child is cruelly slain

 

Born his people to deliver

born to die, for sin to atone

slain to rise, to live forever,

his blood to plead before the Throne

 

In blood and water, grief and pain

in mortal flesh for mortal sin

he came to cleanse our nature’s stain

our guilty souls from death to win

 

Image credit: Rebecca Adeney © 2010