Packing away the crib

I have made:

The Ormulum
(lines 3316 to 3331)

& sante maryes time was
and St Mary’s time was
that yho tha sholde childen
that she then should have child
& taer yho bar almahtiy god
and there she bore Almighty God
dat all this woereld wrohte
that all this world made

& wand him sone i windeclut
and wound him soon in swaddling
& leyde him in a cribe
and laid him in a crib
forthi that yho ne wiste whaer
because she not know where
yho mihte him don i bure
she might him put in chamber

& toh that god was boren thaer
and though that God was born there
swa daernelike on eorthe
so secretly on earth
& wunden thaer swa wreccheliy
and wound there so wretchedly
with clutes in a cribe
with rags in a crib

ne wolde he noht forholen ben
not willed he not hidden be
thohwhethre i thyre clutes
nevertheless in their rags
acc wolde shaewen what he was
but willed show what he was
thurh heofenlike taken
through heavenly token

Bourne Abbey, Lincolnshire about 1145

Into:

Hide and Seek
(Luke 2.12)

When Mary’s time
to give birth was
she bore as son
Almighty God,
who had himself
this whole world wrought.

She wound him round
in winding rags
and put him in
the cattle trough,
without much clue
what else to do.

He did not wish
to hide from men
so secretly,
so wretchedly,
in cattle trough
bound up in rags.

Instead he chose
the rags as clues
to who he was,
to where God is,
which heaven shows
to those who watch.

Grimsby, Lincolnshire 2010