Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Nativity, 1887. Oil on canvas.

“Welcome, all wonders in one sight!
Eternity shut in a span!
Summer in winter, day in night,
Heaven in earth, and God in man!
Great little One! whose all-embracing birth
Lifts earth to heaven, stoops heaven to earth.”

—Chorus from “In the Nativity of Our Lord God” by Robert Crashaw (1613-49)