Okay, Christmas is over, but definitely something you can celebrate all year long, right?
Read this poem at church Christmas Eve because we were in the throes of a funding campaign to buy the building Avenue 209 Coffee House is housed in. The Common Place raised $10,000+ smackers towards the building and renovation fund in less than a month!
A little history on the poem:
1. I rarely EVER write poems that rhyme. Rhyming is for songwriting.
2. I wrote this our first Christmas Eve in the shop, while we were still renovating the main storefront. It was cold and barely lit with candles on a stepladder.
Anyhow, amazing that it holds much more love in it today than it did then!
Christmas 209
through the cajoling
Christmas crowd
among the hustle and
bustle and holiday cheer
long seeking the star
of David
treacherous journey
brought us here
our own little stable
calling out through
the night
humble, main street
storefront
guides us here by His
light
we looked for awhile
to find the right
place
voted down for the
variance
should've seen the
look on my face
but council wanted us
in
still we waited awhile
now know we're on
God's time
remembering, with a
smile
busted-up, taped-up
windows
and the walls bowing
in
plastic bags stuffed
up there
where an air
conditioner once had been
witnessing new
beginnings
like Christ in the
manger
there's a King in my
coffee
what could be
stranger?
the wise men could
make it
bringing gifts, so can
we
grunt work,
management, design
slinging espresso,
writing poetry
but all the gifts we
can give
they can't match His
grace
how to hear "job
well done"
see that look on His
face
the x in x-mas
stands for the cross
that he bore
and we need mas Christ
muy rapido
because in Spanish mas
means more
commit your plans to
the Lord
I learned yesterday
evening
pray with me on
Christ's birthday
to bring Him into this
building
