Winter Rime

My friend Sean called me and challenged me to a little competition as to who could create the best Christmas poem. (I later found out that he had already written his before calling me.) I accepted and finished late yesterday. Enjoy and do leave comments as to what you like about each poem. (You may also vote for best.) Maybe next year more can join in the competition.

The Incarnation
©2008 Sean McGinty

The birthing cry announces the situation.
Into space, time and this dreary ghetto town
Comes something new, at least from our perception.
Joy, hope, fear embodied has to us come down.

This child will bring about the end,
In one way or another, of all.
The turning point of the immutable trend
Set about by the most treacherous of falls.

Our friends and lovers have failed and left.
All our expectations have crashed down on our heads.
God help us, the poor, the lonely, the bereft,
The sick, the tired, the living, the dead.

We who swallow our tears cry out
And tonight we are answered.
Blinding hosts invade to tell about
The long sought cure for our cancer.

These winter rifts will soon be healed.
The tattered things, certainly mended.
Tombs of every sort will be unsealed,
And this aching darkness ended.

Peace upon our wretched hearts,
Peace upon our addled brains.
Sin resolved by our Lord’s art
Of drawing mercy from His pain.

Christmas Chiasmus
©2008 Christopher Hall

And the Word became flesh.
The King of Glory descending,
Took on humanity.
Unplumbed of mysteries;
In pure humility 
He left his throne condescending.
Human and Divine mesh.

Born fallen man to redeem,
Like us in every respect;
Unlike Adam he obeyed
The Saviour committed no wrong;
And the whole Law he portrayed; 
Yes, sin did he reject.
Repealed Adam’s curse as theme.

Agreed before all time
Mercy to shower mankind.
God’s wrath on God pourèd;
Our covenant curses he took;
His ire now assuagèd.
Grace toward us God aligned;
God Triune in full rhyme.

This mystery ushers us praise;
Praise for his complete redemption!
The Trinity in Unity,
Exalt the Triune God who secured life!
Lo, Unity in Trinity.
Praise for God’s wrought salvation!
In song let us our voices raise.

Works we could not do;
Adam fully did deprave
Seed, Hope is Christ, keeping
Covenant blessings does he give
To his chosen. Sweeping
Second Adam burst the grave;
His pure work makes all new.

By his perfect life and death,
Our guilt he exchanged.
Evil broken evermore,
The Saviour left undone no good.
His people’s sin he bore
And our nature he changed.
His righteousness bequeaths breath.

God and man: Jesus,
Second Person of Trinity.
Come to earth, humbly born,
In hypostatic union,
To be counted forlorn.
Son of God from eternity,
And he dwelt among us.

Khet: Play like an Egyptian

We borrowed the game Khet from our friends, the Pixleys. The concept of this game is to direct a laser beam, using mirrored pieces, onto the opponent’s Pharaoh. This is not as easy as it seems; on our first game my wife wiped out her own Pharaoh with a misdirected mirror.

Khet has four types of pieces: an unreflective obelisk, a reflective pyramid, a doubly reflective djed, and the pharaoh. The pieces may move one square in any direction or rotate 90 degrees. The game instructions suggest three opening scenarios, but the players may create their own. On each turn, a player must move a piece of theirs and fire their laser beam. Since each player fires a laser beam, there are two paths that must be watched for an attack. If a laser beam shines on an unreflective surface of a piece, that piece is removed from the board.

What is interesting is that although the game is quite unlike chess in the mechanics, some of the strategy translates over. For example, there are pins, forks, and other such scenarios. Embarrassingly enough my dad, who is an avid chess player, learnt the game and actually won our third game.

Khet is a very fun game, with simple rules and complex strategy. I’m looking forward to acquiring the beam splitter and tower expansion packs.

♃♂☉☽☿♀♄

A few weeks ago, my friend Sean lent me the book Planet Narnia by Michael Ward. The book discusses an overarching hidden structure of the Narniad, a veiled tertiary meaning unifying the series.

As might be inferred from the title of this post, M Ward proposes that each book is defined a Ptolemaic astrological planet. When Sean first told me the thesis and encouraged me to read the book, I was rather sceptical. Narnia has been out 50-some years and just now someone has found a Grand Unified Theory of Narnia! However, I figured it’d be an interesting read at least, and began reading Planet Narnia.

The author skillfully defends his thesis. Michael Ward looks at a variety of Lewisian literature to glean how the planets are understood in the rest of Lewis’s writings. He especially draws on the poem “Planets” and the Ransom Trilogy. In so doing M Ward coins a new word, donegality, (Donegal being a favourite holidaying spot for Lewis.) which involves using symbolism to create an atmosphere for a work while imparting it with a Christological meaning.

Michael Ward illustrates not only major themes of each book, (e.g., the Jovian Spring of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) but several details in each book (e.g., the inclusion of the minotaur among the monsters of the White Which) that serve to substantiate his thesis. In each book the author also discussed how the attributes of each planet serve to illustrate Christ.

After reading the application and explanation of Jupiter in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, as a mental exercise I attempted to place each book with each planet and correclyt matched four of the remaining six. (I missed Venus, probably due to the necessity of cloaking venereal themes in children’s literature.) As the litmus test of a theory is its predictive prowess, I am thoroughly convinced that this astrological theme is the hidden structure of the Narniad

Santa Christ?

An excellent article by Sinclair B. Ferguson on the Ligonier Ministries Blog.