Eternity once entered time
1 Eternity once entered time,
and when the bells of Christmas chime
the earth itself remembers yet
that night the stars cannot forget.
2 And some two thousand years have spun,
two thousand circuits round the sun,
since God was seen in human form
so still and sleepy, small and warm.
3 If we could keep the date exact
and measure every inch of fact
and mark the moment God was born,
or put on trial, or crowned with thorn:
4 Or if we knew the years to be
before creation is set free,
or even count our span of days:
would we grow wise, or mend our ways?
5 For many a woman, man and child
has since been hunted, tried, defiled,
or stripped and tortured, hung to die,
while poison stains the very sky.
6 God grant us to repent, believe,
reflect the love that we receive
and, stunned by joy, have eyes to see
when time shall touch eternity.
Christopher Idle
© Christopher Idle/Jubilate Hymns Ltd
part of the podcast series: 30 Hymns: Christopher Idle with Lance & Sue Pierson
