False Expectations


Image result for free pictures of baby jesus in the manger


People had been waiting a long time
but their blinders kept them wandering
in circles, missing what was in plain sight,
unable to grasp the wonder of a Child born
in a manger, in a stable with donkeys braying
nearby, hidden behind cud-chewing cows.

This is not what they expected,
this is not the way they envisioned his coming
even though the prophets foretold it eons ago.

Will we continue to seek him  in places of honor,
in places of power and wealth, where servants
spread tables of rich food and fine wines?

When will we open our eyes to the humble
ways our Savior comes today: in the immigrant
struggling to cross the border, in the homeless
living under bridges, in the lonely elderly.
in the abused and abandoned children,
in the prisoner waiting on death row.

Will we pass him by like the innkeeper,
like Herod, like the soldiers of old
blind to his unadorned disguise?






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