A poem wot I wrote for the children of Lydford and Boasley Cross Primary Schools, after lengthy and fascinating conversations on the subject this month....
He was born nowhere near a palace
With nurses and soft white sheets;
He was born in a barn in the cold of the night
While people passed by in the streets.
His parents were not at all noble,
His mother was really a girl;
His father, a carpenter, made things in wood:
Theirs was an ordinary world.
Of what he did in his schooldays
All we know is this one fact:
He spent lots of time in the temple,
A strange way for a young boy to act.
You’d expect a young ruler to go training
With the army to learn how to lead;
But this young king went around healing
And comforting all those in need.
He was an unnoticed guest at a wedding
In Cana most of the time
But at the end of the night they all knew him:
He’d turned lots of water to wine.
The friends of this young king were normal,
Not famous or gifted or rich.
Some spent their days catching fishes,
And others just lived in a ditch.
His kingdom, he would tell the people,
Is free of all fighting and crime.
It is one you can’t see, but can grow in your heart
And is everywhere all of the time.
He didn’t come into the city
In a carriage horse-drawn and gold
He came on a donkey he’d borrowed
And people waved palms in the road.
But the people soon turned on this young king;
He wasn’t the fighter they sought
One to smash all their foes and bloody the nose
Of the emperor and all of his court.
This king became the victim
Of the worst crime in all history:
The innocent king who loved everyone
Was killed on a cross-shaped tree.
But this king was someone so special
That his story didn’t end that dark day.
He came back alive and forgave all those
Who had murdered and put him away.
A king full of love and forgiveness:
It’s wierd how the world could reject him.
He went up to heaven but his spirit’s on earth
In the hearts of all who accept him.
His kingdom has no anthem
But still the people sing: hallelujah,
Hello, hail, to Jesus,
A funny sort of king.
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