Music and Cats

I went to church with my parents on Christmas morning. The service, more informal than usual, consisted largely of singing carols (selected at the moment by a member of the congregation) and sharing personal Christmas stories. Leading the service with the minister was his wife, who is seven months pregnant. I was moved by the presence of this woman, herself great with child, reading from the Christmas story.

After the service, we talked with one of my parents’ friends, who mentioned a poem that had been read at the Christmas Eve service the previous night. In this poem, the three queens arrive at Bethlehem, having followed the same star that the kings (their husbands? the poem doesn’t really say) did to find the baby Jesus. Today is Epiphany, the day on the Christian calendar when the kings reached Bethlehem. Poet Norma Farber doesn’t tell us when the queens arrived, just that they came late - with good reason - and brought different sorts of gifts to the stable.

The Queens came late, but the Queens were there
With gifts in their hands and crowns in their hair.
They’d come, these three, like the Kings, from far,
Following, yes, that guiding star.
They’d left their ladles, linens, looms,
Their children playing in nursery rooms,
And told their sitters: “Take charge! For this
Is a marvelous sight we must not miss!”
The Queens came late, but not too late
To see the animals small and great,
Feathered and furred, domestic and wild,
Gathered to gaze at a mother and child.
And rather than frankincense and myrrh
And gold for the babe, they brought for her
Who held him, a homespun gown of blue,
And chicken soup–with noodles, too-
And a lingering, lasting, cradle-song.
The Queens came late and stayed not long,
For their thoughts already were straining far-
Past manger and mother and guiding star
And a child aglow as a morning sun-
Toward home and children and chores undone.
– Norma Farber

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