This was a poem I wrote a few years ago for my Church’s Family Christmas Production. Somehow, I hadn’t gotten to sharing it here. Let’s amend that.

Simple people given simple words;
These shepherds only kept care of bumbly herds. 
But these were honest folk, 
With soft spirits despite their rough cloaks. 

I’m sure they hustled to town all ablaze, 
Tripping over their words to lay praise.
They’d watched something beyond wonder, 
Something they had no fear to blunder. 

For when we behold such glory, 
How can our hearts suppress such a story? 
To do so would surely scratch at our souls;
Somehow, I think the shepherds knew well that toll. 

I’m sure that some took in their tale
And suddenly all else paled. 
Yet others likely heard it and shrugged, 
The power of it bouncing off, their hearts plugged. 

These, right here, are also simple words,
But what will we choose after having heard? 

What will our simple hearts do, 
After hearing such fabled truth? 
Will they squeeze shut like eyes to bright light,
Or open like field flowers, set to soothe? 

The shepherds made a choice,
To put all they were worth into using their voice, 
And look how far it’s come, for such simple folk to rejoice.

Written December 2018