Six stanzas are written in anapestic tetrameter with AAAB rhyme scheme, with the 4th line of each stanza falling a foot short to become trimeter. The seventh stanza fulfills the dangling rhyme scheme with full BBBB and full tetrameter for all four lines as the gospel is finally realized.

Like star trails that stream from the heavens ablaze
The angels to earth came illumined with praise,¹
Announcing the cure for our human malaise
The first night that Christ on earth dwelled.

They sang that the child would show us the way
Proclaiming the Father is good, but we say:
“Can fables like this cast our troubles away?”
And thereby the chorus is quelled.

‘Twas grandiose news but it came and it went
For children still suffer and blood is still spent.
If such was reality, would the advent
Of bounties so long be withheld?

It’s said that He paid what we never could earn²
But still there’s an ache between vest and return.
Where cancer abides, it is hard to unlearn
The myths which His suff’ring repelled.

The myth that we must to end sorrow appease
A Father who couldn’t care less for our needs.
Yet Christmas is offered despite our disease—
A peace that cannot be dispelled.³

A God who is with us, not one we’ve cajoled—
Oh this is the Yuletide news that is told!
What once from afar was a name to behold
By grace is a name to be held.⁴

An unexposed hope now to fullness is swelled
If Christ we invite where our treasure once dwelled.⁵
Our pain is not past but the question’s expelled
For conquering joy can at last be upheld.⁶

© Tanner Rinke 2017

Footnotes

1. “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying…” – Luke 2:13

2. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 6:23

3. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 4:7

4. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” – Hebrews 4:15-16

5. “‘Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also…’” – Matthew 6:19-21

6. “‘I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.’” – John 16:33