“The Angel Spreads the Good News to the Shepherds” by Hua Xiaoxian

from “Going to God with the Shepherds”

If you want to go to God, go without

your certainties.  Take your graces.  Leave

your certainties behind.  If you go looking

for a Triangle inside a Trefoil inside

a Conundrum, you’ll miss the greatest sight

of all, the Holy Trinity playing

children’s games on the lawns of heaven. If

you only look for the Virgin of the Window,

you’ll walk right past Our Lady, laughing and telling

stories with a group of friends….

                                                   And so

go with the shepherds on their angelic quest.

Go to that hick town that David left

as soon as he got the chance, go to the stable,

see what you never expected to see, the doors

to God opening in that manger against

all certainty….

– Louis William Countryman