"Ah!  Dearest Jesus, Holy Child,

Make thee a bed, soft, undefiled,

Within my heart, that it may be

A quiet chamber kept for thee." 

- Martin Luther

No Ordinary Night

- by Ruth Bell Graham

Those were no ordinary sheep...

no common flocks,

huddled in sleep 

among the fields,

the layered rocks,

Near Bethlehem

That Night;

but those

selected for the Temple sacrifice:

theirs to atone

for sins

they had not done.

How right

the angels should appear to them

That Night.

Those were no usual shepherds

there,

but outcast shepherds

whose unusual care

of special sheep

made it impossible to keep

Rabbinic law,

which therefore banned them.

How right

the angels should appear

to them

That Night.

(from "Ruth Bell Graham's Collected Poems" by Ruth Bell Graham, c1977, 1992, 1997, 

the Ruth Graham Literary Trust)