What was it like in Bethlehem,
after the sky ceased to shine,
there was nobody left to tell,
and the flocks needed a new pasture?
What was it like to hold such news
in your hearts, in your community;
to receive a tiny, infant Messiah?
What did you do the week after?
You went back to work, I assume,
days slowly resuming their routine.
You were changed, yet still excluded,
the messengers of God’s messengers
sliding back into obscurity.
Two years later, He was gone
to escape the coming sword;
no angels came to bring you further news.
Did faith flourish or flounder in the fields of Bethlehem,
how did you hold on to hope?
Thirty years on, do we find you at the Jordan,
washing clean in preparation?
Did you yearn through all those years,
taking up the mantle of Anna and Simeon?
You witnessed to God’s faithful fulfillment,
then found yourselves back in the fields
waiting for Messiah to grow up.
Reading between the lines, I wait with you,
holding hope in the tender arms of patience:
He came, He died, He rose; He will come again. Continue reading “Dear Shepherds”
In Pursuit of More 