Advent Poem Reflection: Ox
- Leah Brix
- 5 hours ago
- 3 min read
Ox
Wandering adrift through the hills, I roam.
No place for me do I call a home.
Something is stirring tonight in the breeze.
Something is calling out to me.
To my feet I fly as fast as they can carry,
My heart is crying, “Now don’t you dare tarry!”
There’s a light up ahead, where darkness once stood.
Behold, the Chosen One in a manger of wood.
His beautiful face; a sight to behold.
Truly, it was He whom the prophets foretold.
A Home for the homeless, a place to belong,
Emmanuel has come to right all the wrongs.
Adam and I, while now happily settled into a home that we built, were once career house hoppers. We joked about getting the three-year itch, because we would be perfectly content with our home one day, and wake up the next deciding it was time for a change. This sudden epiphany just happened to occur every three years!
We moved into a tiny 800-square-foot starter house when we were first married, to a bigger rambler on a ½ acre city lot, to a 10-acre hobby farm to accommodate our growing family, then out to Adam’s home farm, where we put up a large double-wide, until we finally built our dream home.
Ironically, we are just about to hit the three-year mark of living in the new house! And while it is heavily lived in, with knicks in the walls, and appliances that have already needed replacing, I still feel very content. Thank God!
It was never my intention to be a nomad, but we welcomed each new adventure as the house we purchased became the home where so many precious memories were created.
I know it sounds cheesy and cliché, but I can say with complete sincerity that wherever Adam and my kids are is home.
It’s a place where everyone feels safe, wanted, and loved—a place where we all belong.
To think of the many people out there who can’t say the same breaks my heart. There are so many broken homes! But honestly, even the best families aren’t perfect. These human limitations point us to the only One who can never disappoint us, let us down, or hurt us!
Regardless of our family situation here on earth, we have a Heavenly Father who knows us and deeply cares for us.
We have a spiritual mother who loves us and was entrusted to us by her son, who thus loves us in a more perfect way than any other person could.
We have countless brothers and sisters in Christ, both here on earth and in heaven, cheering us on!
The poor ox wandering alone is a character that so many of us can relate to at different times in our lives. We may experience rejection from our family or community. We may feel lonely, as though no one really "gets" us, even though many people surround us. We may be new to a community and unsure how to find connection.
But if we head towards the Light, we will always find a home where we belong. It might not be blood relatives or close neighbors, but we have a whole family of Christian brothers and sisters to inspire and encourage us to spend eternity in our Heavenly home.
Until next time, your sister in Christ,
Leah
