Advent I

Out of the dark primeval night,
as from the womb of time,
and all alone,
came Man.
When did he first look up
and find the stars his friends?
For a thousand times three thousand years
they did not fail,
in their circling paths of light,
to stand above the dark
keeping their promise safe,
until from beyond their unimaginable end
the Word went forth.
And Eastern Kings
saw how their magic paled.
And Glory stood above the cave-born child.

––An unpublished poem by Dom Philip Jebb, quoted in The Coming of God, by Maria Boulding