Happy Christmas!

Let’s talk about that baby
who was born on Christmas day
Supposed to be the Saviour,
to him we’re supposed to pray

It doesn’t get much harsher
the way Mary had her child
on a grotty stable floor
with animal droppings piled.

They say there was a manger
where they laid the baby down,
wrapped in swaddling clothes they say.
(Everyone’d come to town.)

There was some sort of census.
(That’s where they count all the heads)
That’s why they were in the stable -
the Inn had sold the beds.

To bring this babe a present
three wise men followed a star
Gold, Myrrh and Frankincense.
They’d really come from afar.

What would a tiny baby
do with a lump of gold?
Also Myrrh and Frankincense?
- - - but that’s how the story’s told.

Perhaps some decent bedding,
or an up-grade to a room.
Not the floor of a stable
where they didn’t have a broom!

Even some running water
would have helped them have their child.
Perhaps some glass in windows
would have perhaps reconciled

the difference in the temperature
between the outside and the in.
But perhaps that’s what the animals did
with their warm breath and skin.

Perhaps a message in the story –
which we never think about
is to give thanks for what we have.
Not fuss, or scream or shout

Let’s be grateful for the mercies
we have from day to day:
our health, our sight, our friends, and lives.
Perhaps we should simply pray:

a “thank You” to the Almighty
for the lives we have to live.
Instead of presents we can’t afford
Give ourselves, - and really give.