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.