A Feeding Trough

 

 

Just a feeding trough,

Nothing glamourous

And in my immediate environ

The smell is obnoxious.

 

I attract animals

Only by what’s in me

And if you said their feed,

I’d say exactly.

 

You could well imagine

My great surprise

When I was the one chosen

To hold a child.

 

A special child

I soon came to find out,

As the Saviour of the world

I had no doubt.

 

 

I felt humbled,

As I was only a manger

And they selected lowly me

To bear the Saviour.

 

 

Crudely fashioned

Just like that cruel cross

That he would be crucified on

To pay sin’s cost.

 

Sin’s wages, his death,

Man’s redemption

Through Jesus’ death, burial

And resurrection.

 

 

And I, his birth,

The cross, his death,

Both of us playing a part

In God’s rest.

 

A rest for all

That trust in God

For their eternal salvation

After Adam’s fall.

 

 

I was transformed

Just like the cross

And elevated to much more

Than a feeding trough.

 

Most had their day

And so did I

On that first Christmas Day

When God drew nigh.

 

Stewart Russell © December 11, 2024

 

Not As You Thought

It had flown in earlier

A brightly painted plane,

The landing gear was different

It distinctly appeared strange.

“How will it land?” I wondered,

After all it had to land

But I guess in such situations

The pilot has a plan.

A considerable time after

I saw the plane again,

This time it was flying so low

I thought that this was insane.

“It is flying too low,” I shouted,

“It is going to crash!”

So out of the bedroom I went

And up the passage in a flash.

It canted on a side

And headed to the ground,

A school was in its way

And that is where it came down.

I live quite near the airport

Just outside the flight path,

And when I realized it was dream

I could only laugh.

I was sitting by the side door

Of my wife’s family home,

It was night I remembered

And I was there alone.

Suddenly I heard a car

And a lady there from alighted,

When I saw who the person was

I was absolutely delighted.

She looked and me and smiled

Amused by my surprise

For surely I had thought

It was someone in disguise.

  

But then I heard another voice

A very familiar chuckle,

“How could it be?” I asked myself,

By now I was really puzzled.

I knew I couldn’t be dreaming

It was much too real for that,

I was absolutely convinced in mind

That what I saw was fact.

However, I guess I must tell you

It was really just a dream

The chuckle I heard was Michael

And my sister-in-law, Pearline.

“A night of dreams,” I hear,

“Just dreaming his night away.”

But all this happened, I must say

At the earliest light of day.

The chiming clock went crazy

And chimed at a quarter past two

So I got up from the bed

And did what I had to do.

I got me a new battery

And installed it in the clock

And then fixed the faulty chimes

That chimed when they should not.

Rather than going back to bed

I did what I like doing,

That is as you may have figured

I sat and wrote a poem.

Not the one I am writing now

That would not make sense,

If that’s what you actually thought

You must be really dense.

When I went back to the bed

It was already light

So that the dreams I dreamt

Didn’t happen during the night.

With the first one I was happy

That it was only just a dream

But not so with the second one

Involving Michael and Pearline.

But things are just as they are

And we must live with that,

Some things we cannot change

And a dream is not a fact.

Stewart Russell © April 23, 2019