Beginnings

I read something this morning that just blew me away. In keeping with the idea that Christmas is never over since the spirit of Christmas remains in our hearts all year long, I will share it with you. It is called "Let the Stable Still Astonish". Here goes:

"Let the stable still astonish:

Straw - dirt floor, dull eyes,

Dusty flanks of donkeys, oxen;

Crumbling, crooked walls;

No bed to carry that pain,

And then, the child,

Rag-wrapped, laid to cry

In a trough.

Who would have chosen this?

Who would have said: "Yes,

Let the God of all the heavens and earth

be born here in this place"?

Who, but the same God

Who stands in the darker, fouler room

Of our hearts

And says, "Yes,

Let the God of Heaven and earth be born here -

in this place."

The author is Leslie Leyland Fields (a new person to me). Reading that was very humbling for me. It made me very aware that my heart could be an even darker place for Jesus to take up residence than the lowly stable.