Let the stable still astonish

Let the stable still astonish;
Straw - dirt floor, dull eyes,
Dusty flanks of donkeys, oxen,
Crumbling, crooked walls;
No bed to carry her pain,
And the child,
Rag-wrapped, laid to rest
In a trough.

Who would have chosen this?
Who would have said... "Yes.
Let the Lord of all the heavens
And earth
Be born here, in this place"?
Who but the same God
Who stands in the darker, fouler rooms
Of our hearts
And says, "Yes.
Let the Lord of Heaven and Earth
be born here -
in this place."

Author Unknown