Christmas Eve

Read Luke 2:1-20

we've mucked out
the stable
    and put down the
            plush carpet;
still,
you will come,
    tracking in mud
    from the Jordan
        and shaking sin's
                        dust
            from off your
                clothes.

the animals
have been dropped off
    at the SPCA
        and the room
            deodorized;
still,
you will come,
        leading the lost,
        the least, the little
                into our midst.

we've turned over
the manger
        and covered it with
                Irish lace,
    setting the table with
            the finest silver
                    and china;
still
you will come,
        tearing the linen
        into strips
    for binding our
                wounds,
            selling the silver
        to feed the hungry.

we've tamed
and made marketable
            this most holy of
    nights,
                shaping it by
        our own desire and
                    dilemmas;
still,
you will come,
        slipping between
            the cracks of our despair
    to fill our emptiness
                with grace,
        and the carols of angels
    to transform our
            acquisitiveness into
        generosity.

© Thom M. Shuman