Two ways or more to risk or rupture faith,
this pearl, this gift, entrusted to our care,
Which way to take, the smooth way or the rough
a challenge and a question hover there.
We wonder and we wander through our thoughts
as all seems foreign, different from our hope.
The ground is shaken, all seems insecure,
where can we sow a seed that fosters hope?
Help us, good God, to see the way ahead,
to take the risk that leads us from the night.
To plant while not yet knowing what might grow,
surprising, thrusting, blindly into light.
Andrew Pratt 12/3/2024 For Comberbach Methodist Church at a time of decision.
© 2024 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@stainer.co.uk .
Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns.
All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd
Metre10.10.10.10
Tune: MORECAMBE
Tag: Uncertainty
Human child of human mother – Christmas hymn 2019
Human child of human mother,
see the Christ has come to birth,
demonstrating now in living
every person’s human worth.
God has chosen, in this moment,
such a messy, mucky start,
choosing risky, earthly living,
God immersed in human art.
Mary holds the God of heaven,
Joseph marvels at his child,
then imagination wonders,
fears are running free and wild.
Certainly a new beginning,
for these youngsters, for the world,
all, as yet, is veiled, in waiting
for God’s grace to be unfurled.
So we wait, we know the story,
lose the sense of shock and awe,
heard each year the well-worn carols,
that we sang in years before.
But for now a new song beckons,
asks that we might join the scene
watch the couple hold the Godhead,
guessing what this gift might mean.
Andrew Pratt 17/12/2019
Words © 2019 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, http://www.stainer.co.uk.
Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd. (Hope Publishing in the USA)
Tune: SCARLET RIBBONS
hymnsandbooks 