Is it just a painting?
Is it just a picture
imagined by Botticelli,
or did he have a vision
of something that really happened?
It must have been difficult to crowd
so much into that stable,
and wouldn’t Mary have worried
that a lot of noise had waked
her sleeping baby?
And mightn’t it make Joseph cross
that the crowds in that small space
were making his wife tired
after the labour of childbirth?
Would the ox stamp, the donkey
bray
to have their stable invaded
by so many angels? And yet
their message was one of peace,
in spite of the rough shepherds
crowding the little child;
in spite of the grand magi
kneeling to spread out gifts
so unsuitable for a baby
who would have preferred a rattle
to expensive gold and myrrh;
in spite of the crowds who had gathered
to be in on that special scene,
lovingly greeting each other,
catching the mood of the angels,
catching the light from the star.
Oh yes, I believe he had seen it.
The vision was there to be painted,
a memory of what had happened,
a picture of what is still happening
now as we celebrate Christmas.