I have stumbled upon this poem today through the Emergent Village, and thought you might find it speaking to you too. Blessings and greetings from from our snow-less campus for these last days of 2012.

The kingdom

by Shelly Barsuhn

When, secondhand, we heard the shepherds call,

“The anointed has come!”

we set out,

arriving in this kingdom a moment or a lifetime ago.

We have journeyed from

continents apart,

tundra, tropics, poverty, privilege,

energy, exhaustion, giddiness, grief.

Through some miracle,

the Messiah has brought us together.

We are all refugees

with nothing of worth to bring–

no gold, frankincense, or myrrh.

We have no drum to play.

The gifts we tried to carry,

our best doctrines, rules, and dogmas,

slip like air through our fingers.

We cup our hands, offering offer nothing.

Come stranger,

we have found our home.

The songs that welcome us here

are not the songs of angels

(who harmonize in a different realm)

but the hum of God’s grace and love

which we intone in messy unison.

In this kingdom,

no one who journeys to the Christ

is unworthy or alien.

In this kingdom,

we are companions

standing close as the wind howls.

– Lina