# Living Psalm 126: A Pilgrimage Song_Mankin, Advent 3, December 17, due December 6

It was like we had been dreaming
of leaving this familiar street,
not with pounding feet, 
No, just one weary step after another,
traveling to who knew where –
not home though –
not with the relentless bombing 
behind us, the gunfire in the streets, 
and a stranger on the road shielding us  
from the eyes of the dead

It was like we had been dreaming 
of a city where the taste of ashes 
wasn’t always on our tongue,
where the ceaseless weeping
was just water splashing 
into the well, where the knife 
hidden between the folds 
of our skirts went unused

It was like we had been dreaming
that we were not powerless
to save each other, to serve
each other, to hear the prayer,
dried lips parted, begging for grace
and a place to rest for the night

It was like we had been dreaming
of another season, a softer story
that left out a murderous king
and the mother who might have bled
to death in a stable, of a father 
who was terrified of the screaming 
but stayed and did what he could,
all alone, to ease her pain

It was like we had been dreaming
that this night might pass finally
with joy, allow us to light 
candles and feed each other,
 to laugh over this new miraculous life 
in the gentle, sacred glow

It was like we had been dreaming
of a sun that might rise bright 
and hot, of a baby who cries, 
only to soothed by a loving hand, 
cradled on the knee of a child
who has come to bring to this 
displaced young couple a meal
and a song on her drum

It was like we had been dreaming
of Christmas but woke to a world
still waiting for the good news 
of great joy to be sung to us –
the shivering and afraid –
a people ever needful 
of Emmanuel