THE SHEPHERDS

The shepherds smelled of sheep and grass and earth,

yet they had seen God’s angels in the night.

With eyes reflecting heaven’s own delight,

they came to seek your almost hidden birth.

The angels danced and played and sang to them

and showed them how to find the lowly place

where God held audience with our human race—

and all created things—in Bethlehem.

They knelt down, then, with awe and growing joy

to pray your health and tell you of the way

the angels sang and how the light of day

broke through their midnight—and to praise your boy.

And you were filled with wonder—all the more

that God had first revealed it to the poor.