A peasant girl huddles in the winter night
in a crude shelter, holding her newborn child.
There are dangers and difficulties,
but her eyes are on the child.
She simply loves him.
Rough shepherds, manly and dirty,
jostle for who is the toughest.
But in this moment they’re not trying so hard;
they’re smitten by the child.
Great kings attend, laden with their kingdoms
and the duties and privileges appertaining thereunto.
But in this moment their eyes are on the child,
and his poverty. They are willing to kneel,
to share their treasures.
Zealots gather, who would gladly beat the kings,
but in this moment they stare at the child,
and are made gentle in simple wonder.
The father takes all this in, and might be frightened,
but in this moment they are not strangers, they are family.
For a moment, they are not rulers or rebels,
no one is responsible or resentful or reprehensible,
they are all simply beloved people.
For a moment the Realm of God is fulfilled,
and the child, even in the cold, is most happy.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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