Nine Days of Advent: The Donkey

The Donkey

You don’t think I look like much

Maybe you have run into me
I’m just the ordinary one
You honked at me when you were on vacation
in the Black Hills of South Dakota
and you would never have seen the
bottom of the Grand Canyon without me
But you never even looked at me

I’m just the ordinary one
Not the mystic camel
or the learned oxen
I am not the one who leads the pack
I am the worker
The one who carries the load
and does the job
and is nondescript and invisible
I’m just the ordinary one.

But I am the one chosen
to carry the load
to bear the hope
to steady the fear
to hold the promise
to take a step forward
from where we are
on the road to
where we need to be.

Not the strong-minded thoroughbred
or the cart carrying oxen
I am the one chosen
to take the next right step
to remain undaunted in the face of ambiguity
to carry the hope
through rugged terrain and lonely territory
to be chosen
to carry the load and walk beside.

I have room for you
I will carry
what you cannot hold
I will take you
to the stable
where the new life
waits for you.

I am the donkey.