“‘God did it’ isn’t an explanation,” said Joseph.

He got no account for the baby’s chromosomes,

No description of the mechanism that

Transmuted the divine shadow into royal blood.

“‘The devil made me do it’ would have sounded better to me,” said Joseph,

Though it never did him any good

When he said it to his old girlfriends.

It was a mystery to him,

What moved him to listen for the rhyme

And puzzle for the reason

That Mary gave him the news in the manner that she did:

A mystery that put him at peace.

There was something in the way she held his hand

That no medical journal article could correlate;

Something in the way she gazed into his eyes

That eluded the grasp of genomic research.

“I don’t ask you to believe what I am saying,” she said,

“I don’t ask you to take my word for it.

I just ask you to love, as if.

Love me as if I were yours,

Love this baby as if he were yours,

As I love you as if you were mine.”

Love ‘as if” makes every child divine

Love ‘as if’ fits all in David’s line

Live ‘as if’ this love was meant for you

Love ‘as if’ the Christmas tale is true….