Testimony of the Holy Manger

“The last will be first, and the first will be last.” —Matthew 20:16

I know what I am:
an earthen vessel guiding cows, goats, and sheep’s
chaotic feeding, their chorus of maws bleating,
baying, snapping open and shut a celebration
of the pastoral. Seen and unseen like a beggar
one passes by, I exist as an unwashed bowl,
coated with herbs, grains, and seeds chewed,
swallowed and spit out. But one winter night,
I held a newborn denied a bed in Bethlehem,
glowing beneath an eastern star’s light. He
transformed me into an altar for shepherds
and magi’s adoration, a throne elevated from
lowliness to honor, a cradle for a God made flesh.