Friday, April 06, 2012

The Pelican

'Who taught the pelican her tender heart to carve?'
No, not Nature, though some cast all things to her;
The blood flows freely down the channels from the heart,
making chicks to live where once their corpses were,
for life is in the blood and bright maternal care
that labors to bring life and gives its blood for grace,
for mothers will risk all when no one else will dare:
with life from in herself she will their death replace.
See thus the emblem drawn of one whose arms spread wide,
who, laboring us to life, restored us when He died.