Poem of the month - December. A different poem every month selected from 85 poems from the book Lifting The Veil.
(note: if your reading on a smart phone, turn your phone sideways)
Merry Christmas ya’ll. I hope you enjoy this special poem and Christmas story.
Christ’s Birth
Adam and Eve sinned many years before
God determined He would fallen man restore
That He, through some means, to man should make know
His plan whereby for sin He might atone.
The habits and the vices of men were growing worse
Requiring some great power to turn aside their course
Some great way-sharer to point the way to take
To cleanse the soul from sin and the callused heart awake.
The hearts and souls of men were honeycombed with sin
With wicked deeds without, impure thoughts within
Wickedness, idolatry, lust, greed were running wild
When God, through the Holy Spirit, conceived a sinless child.
In planning for man’s redemption, God had in mind
A beautiful sweet woman, a woman pure to find
Who, to redeem mankind should bear a son
Through whom God’s heir would be for everyone.
God’s infinite power of vision enabled Him to see
A woman most pure and lovely of all in Galilee
To the Village of Nazareth at the foot of a lofty hill
God sent an Angel-messenger His mission to fulfill.
The Angel whispered Mary to consent and not to fear
That she was in God’s “favor” and to Him very dear
As told by the Angel-messenger it was God’s aim
Through the birth of Jesus fallen man to reclaim.
Mary willingly sacrificed her carefully guarded name
Sacrificed herself to censure, sacrificed herself to blame
When the Angel said her babe should be the Savior boy
Her youthful heart leaped with ecstatic joy.
It was nineteen hundred years ago and a little more
When upon her childlike face the Virgin Mary wore
A troubled look, which passed into expression, lovely, mild
When God willed, for His sake, she should bear a Holy Child.
In the little Town of Bethlehem, many, many years ago
With a company of others as the sun was sinking low
Came Mary tired and weary from the long and dreary way
Came to find no food, no shelter, at the passing of the day.
At length in lowly manger she gladly laid her down
In gratitude and safety while roving beasts stood round
And there in humble Bethlehem in hush of holy morn
The sinful world’s Redeemer, the Infant Christ was born.
Fair of face, in soul Divine, this babe in manger lay
So sweetly by His mother’s side, alone at break of day
Why God so willed a lowly birth no one of earth can tell
Unless He wished the greatest amid the lowliest to dwell.
A little mite, Holy, in the scales of innocence weighed
Like other little children in God’s image made
Into this world in the Providence of God He came
To redeem the fallen man, in His Father’s name.
All nature about, beautifully gowned, fast asleep
Awoke, seeing two bright eyes from the manger peep
In “swaddling clothes” He was placed by His mother’s side
Whose soul was filled with mother-love, tender, glorified.
Over hills, through the trees, the early dawn broke through
Before the people of Bethlehem the babe’s coming knew
The sun rising Heavenward to light up the clear blue sky
While nature viewed below the beauty from on High.
The rivers winding through valleys made pretty the scene
The little hamlet, the birthplace of the lowly Nazarene
In the distance the mountaintops reached to heights sublime
Overlooking a rare scene, the world’s first Christmas time.
On this propitious day Jesus of Nazareth was born
To commemorate His coming was christened “Christmas Morn”
How beautifully the laws of Heaven and of earth blend
And all, to qualify men for future, tend.
No pen can draw nor tongue describe or ever fully tell
How beautiful nature is where so many objects dwell
Some dwell on high cliffs, others in the valleys below
Some garbed in brightest green, others robed in whitest snow.
I wonder if the Angels high above on soaring wing
Were aware that God into the world this baby would bring
Little did the simple folk of Bethlehem realize
The God this little child was sent to immortalize.
I wonder if God, when looking at the babe from above
Sent the Star of Bethlehem as an evidence of His Love
Did the star lead Mary through the shadows dark to see
The wondrous Light Eternal through her child’s Divinity?
Why should this baby more than all that ever came
Into this world set the hearts of men aflame?
Rare flowers that in the most obscure places grow
Must, for their birth, to the Author of all life go.
I wonder if God willed this birth in this lowly place
To show we might the greatest from the humblest trace
Did our Heavenly Father, working out man’s destiny
Reach the zenith of His work—the soul’s immortality?
The Wise Men from the desert and distant mountain range
Came to see this child whose coming was so strange
In the hearts of the people a peculiar feeling crept
As the child upon His mother’s breast peacefully slept.
The Wise Men having seen the babe that in the manger lay
“Being warned of God, departed to their homes another way.”
A warning message by an Angel to Joseph was sent
Who took his wife and child and into Egypt went.
Herod outwitted by the Wise Men slew
All children of Bethlehem under the age of two
Then an Angel of the Lord to Joseph in Egypt said
After Herod’s death, to the land of Israel, go instead.
To Israel came Joseph with mother and child to live
Where he might to his family full protection give
When he heard that Archelaus in Judea was to reign
“Warned by God in a dream, he changed his course again.”
Turning aside, he went to the land of Galilee
Where he and Mary and the babe from danger might be free
Into Nazareth they went and dwelt on the hillside green
Fulfilling the prophecy by calling Him the Nazarene.
As twilight creeps at daybreak over mountain slope
Waking nature from her sleep to light and life and hope
The Shepherds of the fields saw the dawn of a new light
Peering through speeding darkness of the outgoing night.
Jesus came into the world this mission to fulfill
The hearts of Sinful men with truth and love to thrill
He came to strengthen faith and hope, doubt to dispel
The glad tidings of the New Birth He came on earth to tell.
There was a latent power in this babe that seemed to reach
The very souls of men long before He was called to preach
Strange how this little child the hearts of men could move
Long years before His wisdom His words and acts could prove.
God breathed into this lump of clay spiritual life and gave
The power to forgive transgressions and men save
Men everywhere His greatness, His love and goodness sing
And glorify with one acclaim the King of Love, their King.
All civilized nations everywhere with one accord
Proclaim His Divinity when speaking of the Lord
His love, His mercy, in every clime, in every place
With luster shines, transcendent His every grace.
The child of Nazareth grew up ’mid scenes of Galilee
In after years in very truth He lived to set them free
Through cloud or sunshine, joy or sorrow, He heard
God’s every whisper and gave heed to His every word.