Nativity in the Forest

 Nativity in the Forest

Dr Abe V Rotor

Nativity Scene, Christmas 2012. Forest mural by the author, 2010

Creatures in the forest welcome a holy guest: 

     the wild and tough wake up to a stirring,

the feathered and furred, the mimicked and camouflaged,

     follow a beam of light in a clearing. 

It is an altar hemmed by a cathedral of giant trees,

     curtained by the living art of the vine;

and marked by emergent towers, the home of the eagle

     that proclaims the birth of a child divine.

Woodsmen there who live in communities ever since, 

     join their children sing the songs of the trees,

fiddling crickets and hooting owls and playful primates,

     the wind tamed into the whisper of the breeze.

Here the sun is sieved into moving shadows and art,

     the rains nourish life from ground to the sky,

epiphytes of liana and orchid in grandiose bloom,

     shower the newly born, birds singing up high.

How benevolent the wild, how humble the creatures,

     how simple the scene created by nature;

here beauty is simple, unspoiled by civilization,

     it offers comfort and refuge and nurture. 

              

Unconventional the forest seems the bastion of faith 

    for those seeking life's meaning here and far,

for lack of a manger for the spirit of modern man,

    to find here a Child and protect the green altar. ~