what happened? after the manger

“Christmas is not a reminder that the world is really quite a nice old place. It reminds us that the world is a shockingly bad old place, where wickedness flourishes unchecked, where children are murdered, where civilized countries make a lot of money by selling weapons to uncivilized ones so they can blow each other apart. Christmas is God lighting a candle, and you don't light a candle in a room that's already full of sunlight. You light a candle in a room that's so murky that the candle, when lit, reveals just how bad things really are. The light shines in the darkness, says St. John, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

                                                              N.T. Wright, For All God's Worth

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What happened to those shepherds

who heard the angels sing?

Who saw the darkness dispelled by light

and hear good news for all

What happened to those

Who haphazardly left their flocks

And stumbled through the darkness

To where the baby lay

Were their lives changed?

Did dream wild new dreams?

Were their lives transformed?

Or did they merely wander back into the hills

Pick up their staffs

And sit once again in the cold stillness

The ardor of the moment cooling

The light fading?

What happened to

those odd assorted souls who happened

by the scene

and awkwardly watched

the sight of a motely crew

gathered around a mother and child?

Were they too touched by angle fire

Did they too wander aimless, pondering?

What happened to the cousins and aunts,

the family gathered upstairs in that warmer cleaner space?

Were oblivious to the wonder underneath their feet?

Or did grace rise and touch the room in which they ate

And argued as families do?

What happened to merchants and kings

And magi from afar

As they wondered near or wonder from afar?

What happened?

Surely the only stories are not those

Of mad kings plotting infant deaths

Of magi fleeing in the dark, another way

Surely stories of refugees flights

And violent oppression are not all we have

Surely someone became kinder

Someone loved

Someone forgave

Surely someone felt hope

And someone gazed into the now silent skies,

And remembered

For all that happened

And all that did not happen

The world slouches on its way

Still Christmas comes and goes

Still the air is filled with the sound of singing

And lights twinkle as the stars

Still people gather

And make much of a baby’s birth

And gathered to celebrate

And still when all is said and done

The world returns to its ways

Still the powerful plot

Still the poor suffer

Still fear and hate lead to violence

And yet!

This is not all that we have

An empty celebration that when all is said and done

Leaves the world the same dark place

Yes, the world is indeed “a shockingly bad old place,

where wickedness flourishes unchecked,

And yet

At Christmas the light came into the world

A light in the darkness

A light to show us the way

A light that at times may seem to only flicker

But never goes out

The light of hope, and peace, and joy

The light of love

which is kindled in our hearts

so that sometimes we are kinder

and sometimes we love

and forgive

and give

And sometimes

Even as the light shines in a world murky with darkness

And gaze into the now silent skies,

And remember

And hope