Manger King

Who walked these streets where sinners lie broken and absorbed each curse and slander that was spoken?

Who ate and drank with silk-stocking thieves and wept with the widow as she bitterly grieved?

Who touched the untouchable, filled with disease and healed the eyes of the blind so his face they could see?

Who loved and lost and wrestled with doubt and anguished in sweat until blood came out?

Who was betrayed by a brother that he loved to the end and captured like a criminal, but committed no sin?

Who was beaten and tortured and put on display and mocked and spit on as they drug him away?

Who had nails drove through his hands and his feet and hung from a cross between two guilty thieves?

Who suffered and bled as his life slipped away and was placed in a cold dark tomb to stay?

Who descended into death and rose again in three days and walked the earth in victory from an empty grave?

Who ascended into power at the right hand of the father to begin, making all things new in him?

Who is coming again?

Who lifted our heads when darkness was all we could see and met us in flesh to set us free?

Who clothed us with righteousness and love so when the father looks upon us he sees his son?

Who is faithful and just to all who remain in the refuge of his holy name?

 

-VS

 

(Art= Swedish Painter: Marcus Larson 1825-1864)

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Citizens

We were young. Clean air in our lungs. Citizens of a purpose, a plan, a vision. The Spirit was poured over us and hovered above the earth. With every breath we took it filled us, and gave us worth. Power and comfort. Truth and love. Life and birth. Carefully sustained in the absence of pain, but still wild things. Free range, free will, unchained. Independence in a sovereign domain. We weren’t alone. The spirit of deception and accusation was in our midst, with clever curses on his lips. We tasted his kiss and experienced sin. In shame, we hid ourselves away, turning from our purpose we strayed into disdain. Cheap thrills and imitations unable to sustain the world that was put in place for us to exist. Now there are curses on our lips. Was the creator responsible for all of this? So we became our own gods and masters. Unleashing a torrent of brokenness and disaster. Kings and kingdoms. War and death will plague the earth until there’s nothing left. Lust and greed planted a seed that grew into a beast that feeds on the weak and in the midst of all of this grief…He speaks. He breathes peace. He gives dreams. In quiet places men begin to hear the voice of God calling them near. “Do not fear, for I am with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. There is truth and there is virtue. Follow me into my plan, my purpose, my promised land. From you will come another that will be both your king and your brother. He will lead you out of this hell you have uncovered. He will be your living hope. The word made flesh. In him you’ll find rest until all things return to me and the whole world will finally see the glory of the one true king!”

-Vagrant Saint

John 3:16-17

(Art= German Painter: Andreas Achenbach 1815-1910)

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