Twas a Night in the Empire Twas a night in the Empire a long time ago No lights on the tree, no turkey, no snow The sheep were all resting from a day on the graze And me, a, poor shepherd longing for better days The Romans had taken our land and our pride And we hoped our Messiah soon would arrive The shepherds and I atop avalley so deep Took turns guarding the flock and resting in sleep When awoken was I from a light and a choir And a feeling inside that was warmer than fire Confused we all were, the shepherds and I, We looked all around, then we looked to the sky An angel shown forth, that’s how it appeared We trembled we panicked, he said “Do not fear” “I was sent to bring good news of great joy “In the city of David was born the Christ-boy” How odd this had sounded, but it only got stranger “Go find this Messiah laid down in a manger.” When he finished the story of this wonderful birth Angels sang “Praised be God, and peace to this earth” We left for the city with fervor with zeal We wanted to see what the angel revealed We looked for a soldier, a prince, and a scholar We looked for a rich man, and nothing much smaller We looked for the one who would save us from danger But we found, as the angel said, the boy, there, in a manger Is this our messiah with no robe nor a palace No king for a father, just a carpenter calloused This child’s no prince, he is poor just like us He can’t lead a nation I won’t give him my trust And then with a stirring down deep in my soul I gave him my blanket, I thought he’d get cold I gave it Mary, his mother, who smiled She thanked me, she thanked us, and said “stay a while” “For Joseph and I have been given a son” “But he’s for the world, not just for his mum” Then the boy woke with a light in his eyes And the truth of this child I now realized It was not an army this boy would be leading No rebellion of wars, of death and of bleeding His mission, was not what we all had dreamed of Twas better, Twas hope, twas forgiveness, twas love His tiny lip quivered in the night’s windy chill But Mary gave him my blanket, my first act of good will I knew then that my stone heart of sin soon would melt And without thinking, or knowing, I got down and knelt I prayed for the first time for peace and for grace I prayed for the salvation of the whole human race He spoke not a word, he just looked at his mother And somehow us shepherds became then his brothers Just then a small boy came with nothing but drums Mary nodded, the boy played “pa-rum-pa-pum-pum” We knew we must leave now, our new mission start So Happy Birthday Young Prince, thank you for the new heart. ~ Rev. Edwin C. Dwyer ~