That's Abigail in the picture above, climbing our Magnolia tree at home. Continuing with celebrating the birthday of my two-year-old daughter (let’s see if I can get this right, Homeschool Moms: dd2?), here’s the poem I wrote for her on her first birthday (for those of you just waking up, that would be last year). Around the time this was written, I was reading N.D. Wilson's Notes From the Tile-a-Whirl, which I highly recommend to you. The ideas in my poem were influenced by his book, which in turn was very deeply influenced by my favorite writer, G. K. Chesterton (who I would recommend to you, if there was any point; but if you've never read Chesterton, there's just no hope for you!).
Hokay, Jupe, here we go:
Abigail’s First Poem
Given on Her First Birthday
By Her Father
Your hair is curled, your eyes are blue,
You love to dance, for you are you.
You might have been another child,
Who hated dance and seldom smiled;
Or one with hair that doesn’t curl;
Or one who’s even not a girl;
Or doesn’t eat each thing she finds;
Or one of many other kinds.
But you are you, I say again:
Your Maker thought you should have been.
And so you’re here, for all to see,
He spoke, and you could not not be.
You’re learning words (at least a few),
But listen: this is strange, but true:
You are yourself a spoken word
(And one I’m very glad I’ve heard).
Your God is talking all the time:
Sometimes in prose, sometimes in rhyme,
His words, unlike the ones we say,
Turn into worlds, make Night and Day;
His words are hills and skies and wood;
And boys and girls (the bad and good).
His words are sharp, like sword or knife;
His words are real, they come to life;
His words are Story, spinning tales,
Of love and war, and crosses’ nails.
And you, my daughter, you yourself
Are in His Book—but on no shelf:
This Story’s always being told;
We watch each day the Tale unfold.
Which character is Abigail?
A faithless girl who won’t prevail?
Or will you be a noble lass,
Whose virtue no one can surpass?
Will you be mean? Or true and kind?
A noble woman who can find?
Your story’s still in Chapter One:
The scene is set, the tale’s begun.
