The Kingdom

The Kingdom
by Sheila Barsuhn

When secondhand, we heard the shepherds call,
"The anointed has come!"
We set out,
arrived 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 sa 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 song that welcomes 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 of alien.
In this Kingdom,
We are companions
standing close as the wind howls