Thursday, December 04, 2008

christmas shepherds Pictures, Images and Photos

"Ah!  Dearest Jesus, Holy Child,
Make thee a bed, soft, undefiled,
Within my heart, that it may be
A quiet chamber kept for thee." 
- Martin Luther



No Ordinary Night
- by Ruth Bell Graham

Those were no ordinary sheep...
no common flocks,
huddled in sleep 
among the fields,
the layered rocks,
Near Bethlehem
That Night;
but those
selected for the Temple sacrifice:
theirs to atone
for sins
they had not done.

How right
the angels should appear to them
That Night.

Those were no usual shepherds
there,
but outcast shepherds
whose unusual care
of special sheep
made it impossible to keep
Rabbinic law,
which therefore banned them.

How right
the angels should appear
to them
That Night.

(from "Ruth Bell Graham's Collected Poems" by Ruth Bell Graham, c1977, 1992, 1997, 
the Ruth Graham Literary Trust)

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