Manger Monument

Had Yahweh picked a palace for the birth
Of Christ, its splendored Solomonic worth
Would stagger calculation: sheeted gold
Might overspread its cedar walls, and bold
Phoenician carved designs would praise the Child.
But who today would know? Instead, a wild
And rude unlikely cavern cradled Him;
Above--a star millennia can t dim,
More brilliant than lamps of oil aflame,
Illumining the cave where Jesus came.
Thus Bethlehem endures, a citadel
Within our hearts, where mankind s chief event
Occurred. Though Nineveh and Tyre each fell,
The manger outlasts every monument.
12-85