Our first Christmas Eve as husband and wife
Was spent in our barn playing the role of midwife.

A cow began calving when milking was done.
We’d planned to attend the Christmas program.

The cow needed help so we knew we must stay.
Before long a bull calf lay in the clean hay.

The mother cow was milked and the new calf was fed.
Her tongue licked him clean, and fresh straw was his bed.

It wasn’t the Christmas Eve we’d been planning.
We’d hoped to see children in pageant performing.

But the sights, smells, and sounds in our stable, we knew,
Were present at Bethlehem that first Christmas too.

Our Lord had a manger for His place of birth,
And animals welcomed His coming to earth.

So we spent Christmas Eve in our barn, in a stall,
And felt closer to Him Whose birth started it all.

Copyright © 2006 by Jan Lutz