Written in iambic tetrameter, the fourth line of each stanza drops to trimeter to create a forced pause. Rhyme scheme is ABCB throughout the total of 14 stanzas. The title “Breaking In” points to the way God breaks into our world by becoming human and permitting himself to suffer. The title is also an allusion to leather being broken in to conform to and comfort the body. As Christ experienced suffering to comfort us¹, we too are better able to comfort others as we are “broken in.”

You’ve cast our souls² into the night,
The frigid air assails our lungs.
What aid does Jacob’s ladder³ bring
When ice engulfs the rungs?

The pit of torment saps our strength,
But God, you’ve told us all ends well—
Your comforts are as far from us
As heaven is from hell.

A God almighty? God who’s good?
The both of these cannot hold true
So I in suff’ring shake my fist
‘Til one falls out of view.

Shall we go find another god⁴
Who’ll meet us in our barren land?
Or strike me down for my complaint—
At least I’ll feel your hand.

The only strike that pierces⁵ through—
A whisper hardly heard aloud:
“Who told you⁶ I’ve abandoned you?
Who puts me on a cloud?

Be still and tell me can you feel
The clothes that on your bosom rest?
Alike the fabric you forget,
I’m woven ‘round your chest.

My first incarnate evening I
Was far more naked⁷ than was Job⁸,
More naked still I breathed my last
So you could have my robe.

The garment that I give to you
Endures beyond the hide bovine.
To Adam gave I creature’s skin⁹
But you, I clothe in mine.

Like leather I was beaten, stretched
To wrap your form—oh taste and see¹⁰—
What I permit to strike your flesh,
It pierces first through me.

A mother’d rather lose an eye
Than let her infant cry alone!
Oh how much more I give my life
To suffer with my own.”

My God, I fear your words fall flat
As fumes of anguish still persist.
Yet if that’s where you dwell with us,
What flattens is my fist.

I must confess my heart has strayed
In search of salve from louder gods.
Can wealth or nation, health, career
Redeem me? They cannot.

My Lord, I cry out, can we trust
That all these things you will raise new¹¹?
Clothe us with sufficient grace
In pain to carry through.

An air-tight why for every trial
Perhaps I’ll never come to know.
But I know this—Immanuel¹²,
You are my only hope.

© Tanner Rinke 2024

Footnotes

1. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.” – 2 Corinthians 1:3-5.

2. “O LORD, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me?” – Psalm 88:14. This is one of the darkest Psalms of anguish in the scriptures.

3. “And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” – Genesis 28:12

4. While imprisoned during his last days, John the Baptist, whom Jesus at one point called the greatest on earth, expresses grave doubts about Jesus: “Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’” – Matthew 11:2-3. The response Jesus gives immediately afterward is powerful and non-punitive.

5. “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” – Isaiah 53:5

6. “He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’” – Genesis 3:11

7. “…Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” – Philippians 2:5-8. Christ’s descent from heaven’s throne to take on the likeness of men represents a disrobing more cosmic than any form of nakedness humans experience.

8. Job is most known for his deep and extensive trial of suffering: “And he said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.’” – Job 1:21

9. “And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” – ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭3‬:‭21

10. “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” – Psalm 34:8

11. “And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’” – Revelation 21:5

12. “‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us).” – Matthew 1:23. This is the name of Jesus most closely associated with Christmas.