A couple years ago I was thumbing through some of my old notebooks from college and found this poem I'd written on a back page.
I'm really self-conscientious about anything creative I do, especially when it comes to writing. I always feel like everything I do is contrived or cliche or maybe corny. To make sharing this particular piece even more awkward, it is based on my Christian faith. That being said, I guess it's not going to kill me to share, so here goes:
If I recall my spiritual mood at the time, I was coming into a deeper understanding of the personal relationships people can have with God. I had recently made the connection that Christmas isn't simply the celebration of Jesus' birth and eventual redemption but a celebration of the Incarnation: The universe's creator becoming a humbled human to personally experience the pain, hunger, temptation and evil that exists in the world that he himself had created.
Little baby born tonight
To a world that he gave life
Lies beneath a moonlit sky
Below the stars that he designed
Perfect baby born to die
To see the world through human eyes
To feel temptations never known
To feel this pain of flesh and bone.
Son of God and
Son of man
Born to be the perfect lamb
Feel my hurt and hear my cries
Know my grief and true desires
Little baby born tonight
Save my soul and save my life
Empty me of all my crime
Give me peace beyond all time
Baby Jesus born tonight
Save my soul and save my life
Heal my heart and wash my feet
Live and die your plan complete
