(Based on Matthew 2:1-12)

A star rises in the silence of the night
and shatters the deep darkness of my heart’s
loneliness and longing.

A star breaks away from the lowly horizon
and climbs into the heights
where its brightness sings forth in glory and in hope.

A star’s shining song fills the dawn
and wakes my dull and sleeping spirit
and my blind eyes
with new light.

Set out upon the way, my soul, set out upon the way.
A Savior has been born for you.
Make haste and go and find him.

The journeying is long.
The way lies through wasted desert land,
yet grace is in the very seeking.
With each step the star’s light
burns deeper into my heart
and fills me with its searing brightness
till all of me is aglow with its fire.

With each step my burdens and my poor, shoddy riches
are laid down by the wayside
as I press on toward the new life awaiting me
and approach with heart and hands
open wide to its embrace.

Yes, grace lies upon the edges of this long journey,
and time to prepare the heart.

The star leads onward to the Truth,
clothed not in the guise of kingly might and splendor
but in the frail, naked flesh of a newborn babe
wrapped in swaddling bands and lying in a manger
where God shares our poverty and weakness,
made like us in all but sin.

Look deeper as the star’s light shines upon this Truth
and dispels the gloomy darkness.

Sink down and kneel.
Bow low before his presence there upon the hay.

Lay down your crown, o soul, alongside the wise men’s there.
Lay down your pomp and power,
your privileges and pride and presumptions,
your own rights and righteousness.

Offer there your treasures at the manger:
desire and dream purified to finest gold,
hopes and prayers raised and sacrificed
as fragrant frankincense,
griefs and pains and disappointments anointed
and laid to rest with myrrh’s balm.

Let the Child take these poor treasures in hand
to make of them his playthings,
there to see the pleasure he takes in them,
there to await what he will make of them for you,
far  better than your own doing.

And having offered my heart’s gifts
and done him homage in silent adoration,
now I return to my own land.
But the star’s light is my companion
and burns steadily within,
warming my stony coldness,
enlightening my vision,
and guiding my steps along the pilgrim’s way
till I meet this Child again,
then throned and robed in full majesty and royal splendor
at his Father’s side.

This poem was first published in 2006 © by Jeanne Kun, and is included in a book of collected poems, Gladly Given to God, 2021 © by Jeanne Kun.
Used with permission of author.

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• See also The Word Made Flesh, and Anna’s Heir, poems by Jeanne Kun

Top image credit: Nativity illustration with crib, star of Bethlehem, cross, and resurrection, from ChristianPhotoshops.com, © by Kevin Carden. Used with permission.