Mary, pondering

This is just one of the readings we're using this week as we reflect on Mary. It comes from the Wild Goose Resource Group, Iona Community, Scotland.

What is this seed which God has planted,

unasked, uncompromised, unseen?

Unknown to everyone but angels this gift has been.
And who am I to be the mother,

to give my womb at heaven’s behest,

to let my body be the hospice

and God the guest?
Oh, what a risk in such a nation,

in such a place, at such a time,

to come to people in transition and yet in prime.
What if the baby I embody

should enter life deformed or strange,

unable to be known as normal,

to thrive or change?
What if the world, for spite, ignores him,

and friends keep back and parents scorn,

and every fear of every woman in me is born?
Still, I will want and love and hold him,

his cry attend, his smile applaud.

I’ll mother him as any mortal,

and just like God.