Good News / Mystic Traditions

Be the Manger
by Hermit Crab 30.11.2007, changed 30.11.2007

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The virgin mother and her dutiful husband
trudged through the night,
following a star.

Poor, unloved by the world,
they were led to the lowest possible place to deliver a child.

The Bible tells us this was a real building,
but no place on earth could be lower
than the heart of a man who thinks himself not a child of God,
of a woman who cannot identify with this Blessed Mother.

Is this a true story?
Did it really happen like that?
What does it all mean?

Here's an idea:
you
—yes, you—
be the manger.

Receive the unwanted in your heart;
Let Christ be born within you.

[Editor's Note: The author of this poem, Hermit Crab, is the creator of the Fish Out Of Water Project (FOOW.Org) and is a frequent contributor to The Four Precepts Web Portal.]