If Only

If only we were led by stars,

or had angels to direct our course;

if we could bear our burdens

like the patient donkey;

be tended like a shepherd’s sheep…

If only there were heavenly hosts

to calm our fears…

Maybe an innkeeper to rail at,

or a Herod to blame for all that’s wrong

in our sad and sinful lives,

it might be easier to be a Christian.

And yet, at this season,

God gives us

(as if we asked)

stars and shepherds,

angels’ songs,

even His Son

as scapegoat for our sins,

but….

we are the same, for all that,

waiting glumly for those stars and angels,

enveloped in our fears,

never looking

at the sky.