Strange really how a photograph can set off a kind of chain reaction. Take for example this. It's a page from a photo album which my father brought home from the Middle East when he served there during WW2.
I can clearly remember being outraged one Christmas Eve ( circa 2000) when a news bulletin came on TV giving the news how a terrorist had driven a car bomb right in to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The result of this by me was an overly long series of verses which I later set to music. Read on, if you have the time....
Come with me now
to a land full of wonder,
Come with me now
to the land Christ was born.
Come back in time;
see the child in the manger
Wrapped tight in
swaddling clothes, snug and warm.
Come see the shepherds,
the wise men, the angels;
Come see the King
that was born just to die.
Come see young
Mary and Joseph so humble,
So innocent; no
questions; no reasoning why.
Come out to the outskirts of
old Jerusalem
Up to the Mount of Olives so high.
Come see the
Saviour, born in a manger,
Nailed to a cross; born just to
die.
Come feel the
love that the Saviour has given us,
Come feel His
suffering, high on the cross,
Born to redeem
the sins we were born with,
Come praise the
Lord, we have gained from His loss.
But come with me
now to a land full of hatred
Where Arabs and
Jews can not live in peace.
Come with me now;
see the City of David
Walls torn
asunder, but the fighting won’t cease.
Come see the
bodies blown up by a car bomb,
Come feel the
sorrow of a land torn apart.
Come back in time
to the land full of wonder-
What kind of
feelings now stir in your heart?
Two thousand
years later and no-one is wiser,
Two thousand years
on, turn your faces and hide.
Search in your
heart for the love God proclaimed us.
Search in your
heart for the Saviour that died.
So come back with
me to a land full of wonder,
Come back with me
to the cold empty cave.
Remember this
Christmas about Mary and Joseph,
Remember this Christmas
the child born to save......
