Encarnate

Now leaping down
time’s alleys, immense,
a thunderhead,
but then, on the sly,
bright as a blood petal,
slight as a wheat seed,
insinuating himself
into our living,
so that unexpectedly

our dumb mouths
speak him. Our fingers
acknowledge a dexterity
beyond our own.
Even as we stagger
our limbs turn fleet
as goats. Our myopia
suddenly clears
as he begins to open us
to what we’re meant to see—

his tenderness as he
judges the brownness
of the egg before it is laid.
Tells a candle how long
to burn. Designs the coil
of the snail in his small
house, and the trail
of glisten that shows
where God led him.

—Luci Shaw

Copyright © 2014 by the author or Christianity Today/Books & Culture magazine.Click here for reprint information on Books & Culture.

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Books & Culture was a bimonthly review that engaged the contemporary world from a Christian perspective. Every issue of Books & Culture contained in-depth reviews of books that merit critical attention, as well as shorter notices of significant new titles. It was published six times a year by Christianity Today from 1995 to 2016.

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