Love's hidden thread has drawn us to the font (Malcolm Guite)

Love’s hidden thread has drawn us to the font,

A wide womb floating on the breath of God,

Feathered with seraph wings, lit with the swift

Lightening of praise, with thunder over-spread,

And under-girded with an unheard song,

Calling through water, fire, darkness, pain

Calling us to the life for which we long,

Yearning to bring us to our birth again.

Again, the breath of water is on the waters

In whose reflecting face our candles shine,

Again, he draws from death the sons and daughters

For whom he bid the elements combine

As living stones around a font today,

Rejoice with those who roll the stone away.

--Malcolm Guite, St. John the Baptist: 2 Baptism 

Image source:  Lorenzo Scott, Baptism of Jesus (1987), https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/baptism-jesus-33953.  See also:  https://media.ascensionpress.com/2019/01/13/why-did-christ-have-to-be-baptized/

Poem source