On our way back from Bethlehem 
We could have been waylaid by Herods 
Or stomped down by cynics 
Who’d say stars are voodoo 
And shepherds are ignorant 
And there is no breeding 
In small towns like Nazareth. 

We could have avoided
The tales and the rumors
That swarmed through the travelers—
After all, they were Jewish
And we were all scholars
And could have discounted
Parochial legends.

But warnings weren’t rumors
And angels aren’t legends
The baby was real as real can be
And sometimes you just can’t
Let simplicity throw you—
Greatness and riches aren’t
Always the same.

So we trusted the warning
And went by our instincts,
Turned west and not east, then
Circled around—avoided an ambush,
We later discovered
And went home rejoicing
At what we had found.
 

Excerpted from The Gaither Homecoming Bible,
Thomas Nelson Publishing, 2011.