Thoughts on Bethlehem

This summer I spent some time in Bethlehem, Israel - not Pennsylvania! I was struck by many different thoughts and emotions as I walked the streets of this ancient town. During this Christmas season, I tried to capture some thoughts in a poem. 

Bethlehem

O Little Town of Bethlehem
How much you must have changed
A once obscure and quiet place
Not many knew your name

Then one year a census called
Come children far and near
Come back to where your families grew
Come celebrate this year

So many came to Bethlehem
Including one strange pair
A carpenter, a pregnant girl
Yet few knew they were there

"No room", "move on", "go somewhere else"
Rejection was their fare
No one understood their plight
And no one seemed to care

Then . . . .

A baby’s cry broke through the night
An angel shouting joy
O little town of Bethlehem
You birthed a baby boy

In that night so much had changed
For Bethlehem the town
From now on, the world would know,
The name , the place, the sounds

Two thousand years have come and gone
And Bethlehem’s still known
But few see what is really there
Behind the walls of stone

This town that once declared no room
To the Savior that was born
Now finds itself rejected too
Lives broken, shattered, torn

No census now is needed,
They come to see and hear
The baby’s birth, no longer hushed
Draws thousands far and near

Yet in the midst of everything
Rejection fills the air
No one understands their plight
And no one seems to care

O little town of Bethlehem
The one Who knows you best
The baby boy, the savior - king
He is your peace and rest

While all the world ignores you now
As once you did to Him
Jesus sees and hears you
Come to Him and Live