The Man And The Birds

The man I'm talking about was not a scrooge
No, he was a kind, a decent, a mostly good man
Generous to his family and upright in his dealings with other men
But he just did not believe in all of that incarnation stuff
Which the churches proclaim at Christmas time
It just did not make sense and he was too honest
To pretend otherwise
He could not swallow the Jesus' story
About God coming to earth as a man
He told his wife, I'm truly sorry to distress you
But I'm just not going with you to church this Christmas Eve
He said he'd feel like a hypocrite
That he'd much rather just stay home
But that he would wait up for them
So, he stayed, and they went to the midnight service
Now, shortly after, the family drove away in the car Snow began to fall

He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier
Then he went back to his fireside chair, began to read his newspaper
Minutes later, he was startled by a thudding sound
And then another, then yet another
At first, he thought somebody must be throwing snowballs
Against the living room window

But when he went to the front door to investigate
He found a flock of birds huddled out there miserably in the snow
They had been caught in the storm
In a desperate search for shelter
They have tried to fly through his large landscape window
That was what had been making the sound
Well, he couldn't let those poor creatures just lie there and freeze
So, he remembered the barn where his children stable their pony
That would provide a warm shelter
All he would have to do is direct the birds into that shelter
Quickly, he put on a coat and galoshes

And he tramped through the deepening snow to the barn
And he opened the doors wide
And inside the barn, he turned on a light
So, the birds would know the way in
But the birds did not come in
So, he figured that food would entice them
He went back into the house and fetched some breadcrumbs
And sprinkled those on the snow
Making a trail of breadcrumbs
To the yellow lighted wide-open doorway of the stable
But to his dismay, the birds ignored the breadcrumbs

The birds just continued to flop around helplessly in the snow
He tried catching them
He could not
He tried shoeing them into the barn by walking around them and waving his arms
But instead, they scattered in every direction
Every direction except into the warm lighted barn
And that's when he realized that they were afraid of him
They were afraid of him!
To him, he reasoned, I'm a strange, terrifying creature
If only I could think of some way to let 'em know that they can trust me
That I'm not trying to hurt them, but to help them
But how?

Any move he made tended to frighten them and confuse them
They just would not follow
They would not be led or shooed because they feared him
And he thought to himself, if only I could be a bird now
I could be a bird and mingle with them
And speak their language and tell them not to be afraid
Then I could show them the way to the safe, warm barn
But I would have to be one of them, wouldn't I?

So, they could see
And hear and understand
At that moment, the church bells began to ring
The sound reached his ears
Above the sounds of the wind
And he stood there listening to the bell Adeste Fidelis
Listening to the bells
Feeling the glad tidings of Christmas
And he sank to his knees in the snow

I hope for you and those you love
This will be a wonderfully merry Christmas