The First Christmas Night

I like to think that maybe the sun did try to set a little sooner, that the birds hurried their singing and found their nests as soon as they could, that all nature was attuned to what would happen on that night.

I WONDER if the sun made haste to set
So that the shades of night might sooner fall
And quickly bring the longed-for holy night -
That first glad Christmas night so loved by all?
I think perhaps the little birds made haste
To sing their even song and go to rest;
The patient beasts were glad to find their stalls.
All nature wrapped in twilight dusk was blest.
The stars hung low and shone so bright and clear,
While soft winds lingered in an ancient tree
Whose arms reached out against the dark'ning sky -
The silent token of a mystery.

This was the night by prophets long foretold
When God Himself in human form concealed
Should come to us in Mary's Holy Babe.
While hidden thus our God was thus revealed.
No human eye could penetrate the veil
E'en though He walked and talked with men each day.
His diety by revelation came
To those who loved and followed all the way.
Concealed, revealed, He dwells in us today,
A mystery our hearts alone can share.
The winds still whisper in the ancient tree.
A feast is spread where once the heart was bare.

~John Wright Follette