Wise Women Also Came

– Art: Maya Telford

By Jan Richardson

Wise women also came.
The fire burned in their wombs long before they saw
the flaming star in the sky.

They walked in shadows, trusting the path
would open under the light of the moon.

Wise women also came,
seeking no directions,
no permission from any king.

They came by their own authority,
their own desire,
their own longing.

They came in quiet, spreading no rumors,
sparking no fears to lead to innocents’ slaughter,
to their sister Rachel’s inconsolable lamentations.

Wise women also came,
and they brought useful gifts:
water for labor’s washing,
fire for warm illumination,
a blanket for swaddling.

Wise women also came,
at least three of them,
holding Mary in the labor,
crying out with her in the birth pangs,
breathing ancient blessings into her ear.

Wise women also came,
and they went,
as wise women always do,
home a different way.

Related Off-site Links:
Epiphany: Mystery in the Stars – In Search of a New Eden (January 5, 2020).
Queer Epiphany: Three Kings or Three Queens? – Kittredge Cherry (Q Spirit, January 5, 2023).

See also the related Wild Reed posts:
• What We Can Learn From the Story of the Magi
• The Feast of the Epiphany
• We Three . . . Queens
• Our Story Too
• An Epiphany Blessing
• The Magi and Our Journey to Christ
• Wakey Wakey
• A Story of Searching and Discovery
• The Onward Call
• Phillip Clark on the Magi as Archetypes of “Witchy Faith”

Image: “We Three Queens of Orient Are” by Maya Telford.