Whoever expected a baby? (Anna Weems)

Even now we simply do not expect
  to find a deity in a stable.
Somehow the setting is all wrong:
  the swaddling clothes too plain,
  the manger too common for the likes of a Savior,
  the straw inelegant,
  the animals, reeking and noisy,
  the whole scene is too ordinary for our taste. 
And the cast of characters is no better.
With the possible exception of the kings,
  who among them is fit for this night?
  the shepherds? certainly too crude,
  the carpenter too rough, the girl too young.
And the baby?
Whoever expected a baby?
Whoever expected the advent of God in a helpless child?
Had the Messiah arrived in the blazing light of the glory
    of a legion of angels wielding golden swords,
  the whole world could have been conquered for Jesus
    right then and there
  and we in the church - to say nothing of the world! –
     wouldn’t have so much trouble today.
Even now we simply do not expect
  to face the world armed with love. 

--Anna Weems, “Unexpected,”
in Kneeling in Bethlehem

Image source: Ukrainian artist Maryana Flyak, Nativity, https://maryanakachmar.wixsite.com/mysite/icon-painting
Poem source