Christmas Lights

Christmas Lights

Michael Stalcup

Everywhere we look we see
Bright rows of stars on Christmas Eve;
The darkness cannot but receive
Their light—even mistakenly
Illuminating, to its fright,
Their marvelous display at night;

And in our homes, an irony,
The Christmas symbol ever seen:
The never-Fall, the evergreen,
The never-dying dies so we
Can celebrate, amidst our strife,
The glory of a given life;

And underneath the Christmas tree,
The gifts that everybody sees
And wants to open early ("Please!")
Are purchased costly, given free;
Though so long in their boxes trapped,
One morning they will be unwrapped!

We see all this and yet forget
The Light who shone into our depths,
The Ever-Life who died our death,
The Giver of immortal breath,
The God who chose to pay our debt
Before there was a Christmas yet.

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Michael Stalcup
Poet & Missionary

Michael Stalcup is a Thai-American missionary living in Bangkok, Thailand, where there is no snow. His poems have appeared in Faithfully Magazine, Inheritance Magazine, Poets Reading the News, and Visible Poetry Project. You can find more of his work at michaelstalcup.com

Photography by Max Neustaedter