Robert Hudson, a retired Senior Editor at Zondervan, has written many books including The Monk’s Record Player and The Beautiful Madness of Martin Bonham: A Tale About Loving God.
Hudson’s latest is Nativity Set: Table-Top Meditations for Christmas. Looking for devotional material for Advent? This book is a gem.
Nativity Set is a series of short poems based on the figurines in Hudson’s own crèche scene. From the very first line of the very first poem—“A radiant star hangs from a nail”—we taste the piquant mix of images that greets us at every turn in this collection, rendering it a continual surprise and delight.
The poems are all in the form of the rondel, a pattern of thirteen lines with repeating refrains and a distinctive rhyme scheme. Devised by thirteenth-century French troubadours, like every tried and true poetic form this one proves surprisingly supple and expressive, its very structure setting up intriguing contrasts among the subtly changing and deepening overtones of the repeated lines. And the simple rhymes chime like church bells in falling snow.
It’s a small book, but proves the paradox that small can be conceptually large and capacious, in this case forming a jewel-like setting for the grandest of all glories, the gift of Christ. The poems are beautifully illustrated with line drawings by Mark Sheeres, and each one is appended with a scripture verse—not always the verses you might expect but ones which, in conversation with the poems, really open your eyes. I read this book over three mornings, and it never failed to provide me with little explosions of wonder and with real food for meditation.
Plus there’s another bonus: a lovely history of the tradition of the crèche, beginning with its famous celebration by St. Francis on Christmas Eve of 1223 in the town of Greccio, and continuing through various other iterations, from the French santibelli to the Moravian putz. Just reading this pocket history made me want to start collecting crèche figurines! But then, we already have a nativity scene that we love, which, like the one in this book, contains some cherished oddments, like our pipe-cleaner sheep and a couple of horses from my daughter’s barnyard set.
What is it about a table-top nativity set—the very idea of a group of figurines—that so warms our heart? For me, part of the magic is how it takes me back to childhood, not only at Christmas time but all the times when I used to play on the floor with little plastic people and animals. This year, let’s move the ox and ass forward a bit, more into the light, and let’s bring that oldest shepherd a little closer to the crib. Setting up the crèche, and reading these poems, I am a child again.
But what I really love about these poems is the simple purity of their devotion. This is writing that arises from a pure heart of simple love for Christ, and it draws me into that same place. There is no excess here, no ostentation either of religiosity or literary pretense. As I read, gradually I disappear, and there is only the star, only the shepherds and magi, only the Christ child. There is only wonder, only love.
In his introduction Robert Hudson expresses the hope that his book, like the crèche itself, might be brought out by families year after year as part of their Advent tradition, and in my case, his hope will be fulfilled. As you set up your own crèche this year, curl up with this book and a warm drink and return in your heart to that first Christmas night, as in the poet’s words, “we await the One who’s always here.”
Here’s just the first poem in this enchanting series, “Star.” (And notice the subtle change in the last line.)
a radiant star hangs from a nail
in clouds of faded angel hair
and drops its gilding here and there
in flecks of white and yellow hail
the zigzag of the comet trail
outlines a fiery golden stair
a radiant star hangs from a nail
in clouds of faded angel hair
its jagged glow will never fail
to testify through light and air
how Jesus born beneath its glare
against sharp iron would prevail
a radiant Star hangs from a nail
Spoiler alert!!! Like all good books, Nativity Set ends with a surprise, which is that in every crèche scene Christ appears not only in the manger … Oops! I almost gave away the surprise, but only in prose. I leave it to you discover its much more marvelous expression in Robert Hudson’s poetry.
Discover more about Robert Hudson at RobertHudsonBooks.com.
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