Today’s Nativity prayer from Thirty Days to Glory goes like this:
Bless this caring shepherd and the small lamb cradled in his arms. May it whisper of your caring embrace in our lives.
We always used that prayer, but I’m going to revise it. Those phrases are much too tame for the fierceness of a shepherd in ancient Palestine. Those guys killed lions and bears with a club. They fought off thieves and parasites. They battled the stupidity of the sheep and the despair of their own isolation. These guys were more John Wayne than Mister Rogers.
I’m not sure what the prayer should say, but it should be manly. And rugged. It should speak of battles and protection, storms and shelter, life and death. Then, it should lead over dark hills into a crowded city where the rest of society cringes at the smell. It should kneel at a manger with a star overhead. And then it should whisper words of adoration from the lips of men more accustomed to rough speech.
And, when the prayer ends, it should tell everyone who hears it that “Unto you is born this night in the City of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
That would be an appropriate prayer.