Poem for Christmas

Poem for the Nativity of Our Lord
By David L. Wade, United Church of Christ
Based on Luke 2:1-20

The Child is born
Wrapped in swaddling clothes
Laid in a manger.
How romantic!
How idyllic…
The soft
Holy
Glow…
The “friendly beasts”
The song of angels…
But
In reality,
How terrible!
An unattended birth
An unsanitary setting
(A cold
drafty
dirty
stable!
Old rags
And scratchy straw)
A horrible place for any birth
Much less for my Lord!
I romanticize the Birth of Christ.
I forget that he came in poverty
In want
In pain
- In danger,
- And that he may still be found
In the poverty
In the dirt
In the squalour of human life.
Lord, forgive my Christmas card imagery
My affluent celebration of his birth
And remind me that the Christ himself
Was “one of the least.”
Open my eyes today to the presence of God,
Not only on the heights,
But also in the depths of the world,
Where life is threatened,
But
Also
Holy.
Amen.