How silently,
how silently
the wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts
to human hearts
the blessings of his heaven.

No ear may hear his coming,
but in this world of sin,
where meeks souls will
receive him still
the dear Christ enters in.

—Phillips Brooks, 1868

A couple summers ago, I wrote “On waiting and squirming” about “periods during which I have difficulty finding God’s reassuring