Twas The Night Before Christmas

’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Creatures were stirring- I literally saw a mouse;

No stockings hung- No chimney there

Not a single decoration…anywhere.

No children nestled, just empty beds,

Visions of children playing in OUR heads.

Hannah, clean from her bucket bath, lying next to me,

Guessing how long tomorrow’s church service will be.

When out in the yard there arose such a clatter:

The Muslim call to prayer-nothing NEW is the matter.

Five times a day for the past 1400 years,

it becomes background, but brings God to tears.

The star and crescent moon on every mosque’s dome

While the faithful inside, choose their eternal home.

The prayers of a thousand followers of Al-Islam

To America just carriers of a suicide bomb.

Their submission and commitment is to be admired,

When for shallowness and ease, our lives seem wired.

They live lives of fear, devoid of hope.

Fates dangling in the balance of the good/bad rope.

Working so hard to earn what God freely gives,

We know Jesus was born, died and He lives!

But to everyone else in this gigantic town

Tomorrow’s just like today-nothing closes down.

We call this day “Merry” for a celebration it should be

But no one here knows Jesus died for you AND me.

He came as a baby and grew into a man,

Who died on the cross at the sin of our hand.

We didn’t deserve it- eternal life is a gift

And accepting it’s the one way to bridge the rift.

It’s not the prayers or good deeds that can save

It’s accepting the One who rose from the grave.

It’s crazy-we’re the ones Jesus wants to be WITH,

Sometimes we treat Him like it’s all a myth.

“God WITH us” is what tomorrow’s about,

but “Allah U Akhbar” is what the muezzin will shout.

He came to save us- my neighbors and me,

To be WITH us, rescue us, set us free.

I wish that Kankan could just understand,

that Jesus is God, but wanted to be man.

And because He is both, we can call him “Friend”

Only He can save us from the saddest end.

As we turn off the solar light, we decide to watch “Elf”

A familiar taste of Christmas from off the shelf.

We’ve been planning this Christmas for almost a year,

We aren’t where we expected, instead, we are here.

No presents, no family, no puppy, no tree

No shopping, no carols, no cookies, no glee.

There’s sheep and there’s goats, there’s dust and there’s hay

Maybe we’re pretty close to that first Christmas Day