The Birthings: A Christmas Poem

Merry Christmas!  As I finish wrapping presents on Christmas Eve, I thought I'd take a little time out to post this old Christmas poem that is still one of my favorites (and no, I don't really say that about all of them)

The Birthings

In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth

The Spirit hovered over the waters on the day of its birth

Jesus was the Word of God, who spoke all things to be

The Trinity is there in the first Bible verses three

But more than just the earth was made, the Father made it all

From the largest of the large to the smallest of the small

The moon, the stars, the nebulas, the vast expanse of space

To microbes, atoms, particles, up to the human race!

Scientists and quantum theorists say we are not alone

And speculate of aliens on planets still unknown

And alternate realities, so many we can’t count

How many may be possible, the type nor the amount

Then elements of water, ethos, fire, dirt, and air

Of rocks and shoals and hidden coves, and lands beyond compare

He made the plants, the bugs, the fish, the flowers and the trees

Reptiles, dinosaurs, mammals, and of course, the birds and bees

Then He made man, who had, above all, a distinct advantage

For differently from all other life, He made man in His image

But not just flesh and bone, but mind and heart, and free will too

To make the choice of right or wrong, to quest for what is true

With choice for good or evil, and Satan lurking around

It’s not a shock the first man crossed onto forbidden ground

And ate a fruit that opened eyes and caused mankind to fall

Though another birth years later would save us one and all

The Word made flesh was who He was; Jesus Christ the Lord

And through His birth and death, our salvation was restored

For when He died, He took the sin that was our cross to bear

He died a gruesome death and thought of us with loving care

And so from three parts God, we come to more births than just two

The birth of Man, the birth of Christ, and yet God was not through

For Jesus rose, and paved the way for us to follow Him

To save us from our futures which were justified and grim

But that’s not the future now, and we can be reborn

If we believe in Jesus Christ and in His blood we’re sworn

The gift of life and salvation is God’s great gift to us

So that we may become the rescued righteous US in JESUS

Hands and Feet of the Savior: My Christmas Poem 2012

I thought a while about whether to include my Christmas poem from this year yet.  My last set of cards just went out today, the 22nd, so some people I send to haven't seen it yet.  But Christmas is in 3 days, so there's not an awful lot of time.
     This year, I focused on Jesus' Hands and Feet, from the manger to the ministry, from His death to His resurrection and beyond.  I hope whoever reads it not only enjoys it, but gets some meaning out of it.

Hands and Feet of the Savior

His Feet were kicking, His Toes wriggling, as Joseph tickled His Soles

These Feet that would walk on water and be torn by gruesome holes

His tiny Hand grasped a finger of His Blessed Mother Mary

This Hand that would one day cure the infirm, and burden a cross to carry

  

These same Feet would take Jesus throughout the Middle East

And into the Judean desert to be tempted by the beast

They’d wade into the Jordan River; John anointed Him there

And twice they were washed with a woman’s tears, adoringly dried with her hair

  

They crouched in Gethsemane; He prayed the cup be taken from His hand

Then through the dirt and nailed to a cross, caked with blood and sand

And yet His death, by God’s design, should not be counted as loss

For these are the Feet we fall before as we kneel at the foot of the cross

The strong Hands of Jesus were calloused as He learned the carpentry trade

They calmed a storm, and saved Peter’s life, when he was sore afraid

His hands held sacred scrolls He taught from, and children so guiltless and sweet

They summoned His disciples, and later washed their feet

They healed the sick, the blind, the lame, and even brought back the dead

And revealed who was His betrayer:  The one with whom He dipped bread

His Hands endured being tied and bound, yet still with a noble grace

And lifeless, lifted by His mother, to touch her tear-stained face 

And then these once still Hands would roll away a mighty stone!

And He showed all those who doubted Him they were made of flesh and bone

His Wonderful Hands and Glorious Feet now reign in Heaven above

The same Hands that will one day welcome us Home with Friendship, Warmth, and Love!

Let them welcome you this Christmas!

       - Gary Van Buren

              Christmas 2012

One Christ to Rule Them All

In my last post, I talked about the path I have been on for over a decade now, reading and writing my attempts to be a man of God and yet use all of my brain.  Over the years, as I have seen the fallacies of the scientific community take over this nation, and the ideals of the liberal left, God stands by the wayside.  He is no longer wanted here by many in this nation, who embrace another kind of thought, the kind of thought that leads away from God, and they use the excuse that God is not an intellectual pursuit, but a fantasy, dreamed up by men.
     But that is not the way I see things.  God is in everything:  Science, nature, metaphysics, philosophy, history, trivialities.  He is so beyond us and our understanding that attempts to comprehend who and what He really is would lead one into concepts usually only dealt with in the realm of our fictions - science fiction, to be exact.  God is a being that exists beyond time and space, and if that isn't a concept straight out of science fiction, then I don't know what is!
     In this poem, I explored the life of Jesus, and looked at it through this science fiction prism, asking questions about what exists beyond what we can sense with our five senses and the limits of what we can know with those senses and with our minds, and what might exist beyond all of that.  I tried to invoke the passion and enthusiasm that a science fiction fan has for his favorite fictions, and how, over the years, as I have shared some of those passions, I realized that the one constant in all of it was Jesus, and how He deserves just as much passion, and more.  These other things are wild and fantastical and ignite my imagination, but the story of Jesus is just as wild and fantastical and imaginative... yet His story was and is REAL!
     The title is an allusion to "One Ring to Rule Them All" from The Lord of the Rings, so this poem is also quite apt at this time since The Hobbit just opened on this last week!

One Christ to Rule Them All

by

Gary Van Buren

Little boy born in a quaint little manger                    

Three wise men think he’s a sign                               

Just wait; this history gets even stranger                   

For his parents do think him divine

He was raised the son of a carpenter                         

And then taught in a temple of gold                         

Lest you think this event was normal thereafter        

At that time, he taught elders at 13-years-old!

Soon after, he vanished, and not much is known

Of his history among fellow men

He then reappeared as a man fully-grown

To teach and to reach the down-trodden                       

He spoke, and his words touched thousands of ears 

Tens of thousands of minds, souls, and hearts          

His ministry grew for about three more years

But is this where this mystic story really starts?

They killed him, you see, for blasphemy               

For daring to call himself God                                   

They dispatched him like a true enemy                     

With the blessings of good old King Herod

But is that all there is, all he was about?                    

He just died, and there’s not any more?                    

For he claimed he was God, and believers devout    

Stake their lives, all they are, on what he has in store!

What exists beyond what can be seen?                     

And what about all our tomorrows?                          

Are there things we can’t see that live in between    

Our world, in the twilight of shadows?

Pure fiction?  Not to the Christian’s eye                   

God exists beyond all that we know                         

It’s belief that lives in the dreams of Sci-Fi               

And God puts on a spectacular show!

More vast than the future in Star Trek                       

More immense than Star Wars’ past                          

More real than a story by Phillip K. Dick                  

With more love than a sci-fi enthusiast

Jules Verne and H. G. Wells could never have dreamed

Of something so grand and profound                                   

Of a story that really is all that it seemed                  

And the Bible is where this real legend is found

Two millennia ago, Jesus was born                            

He lived among man, and he died                             

But that’s not the end, nor a reason to mourn                       

For He rose once again, glorified!                             

His is the story that grandly foreshadows                 

All space and time, where everything meets             

He is the center, where the universe flows                

And all our lives can find love so sweet and complete!

Happy Birthday, Savior of my soul!

God DOES exist, and He loves us: What I've Learned From My Decade-Long Intellectual Pursuit of God and His Glorious Creation

In church today, after praying for the families of all those children from Connecticut who died in a horrible school shooting, and the community, and all the hurting children, my pastor then launched into the main focus of his message, which is one we Christians have heard many times before:  How can a good God allow such evil in the world?  In order to answer that question, he brought up all sorts of ideas, mostly dealing with the fine tuned universe we live in, and how intricate and special the life on this planet, which is just a little spec of dust in the cosmos, really is!  It touched me because this is something I've been writing about in my journal and reading about for well over a decade now.  That argument is to take all the scientific data we've collected about life on earth and what we know about the stars and galaxies, and electrons and neutrons and the cell, and all the elements that make up, well, everything, and then using that data to say one of two things:  God doesn't exist, or God exists.  For many scientists, and many non-scientists, the evidence is so plain and clear that there can be no other answer than to say the obvious:  God doesn't exist, and they treat anyone who thinks otherwise as an idiot, especially based upon the evidence.  But there is a problem here, because there are many bright people, with high IQ's even, who look at this same evidence and DO see God there.  In fact, for these intelligent people, they see irrefutable proof that God exists, for they cannot understand how a person could explain all of it without adding God to the equation!  You won't find a lot of them in the scientific community, public schools, higher education, Hollywood, the media, or the Democratic party, but these highly intelligent people, who are quite difficult to actually debate, cannot be dismissed with just a smirk, even though that is the attitude bestowed upon them by the persons and left-wing communities I just mentioned, and wholly accepted by a brainwashed populous.  There is just something there that simply cannot be denied, and that something is God.
     As I said, this is the argument I've been embroiled in for the last decade, in my own little way, as I have listened to both sides and taken notes.  This sermon that was delivered today was making me think, as I sat there and soaked it all in, of all sorts of things, from Dinesh D'Souza's books Life After Death: The Evidence and Godforsaken, Signature in the Cell by Stephen C. Meyer, Beyond the Cosmos by Hugh Ross, and Refuting Evolution by Jonathan Sarfati, as well as Ann Coulter's well mounted and deliciously sarcastic argument for creationism in Godless: The Church of Liberalism, and quite a bit of my own writing from my journals over the years, especially two Christmas poems I wrote about 10 years ago and that I'll be posting in this blog shortly, "One Christ to Rule Them All" and "The Birthings".  Because after all of the arguments back and forth over the years, and despite that some people who came to a different conclusion can claim just as long of an in-depth investigation, I can still come away from all of it content in the knowledge that my faith has only been strengthened by this more intellectual pursuit of the truth, and that I am not ashamed of what I believe.  I am wholly satisfied to know that men and women of great intelligence believe the same thing, and don't have to hang their intellectual pursuit on a hook when they walk with God, but can use that which God gave them - an exceptional brain - to help prove His existence!  That is what I take away from this entire intellectual and theological pursuit I've been on all these years:  That smart men can believe in God without having to sacrifice anything or make excuses for any of it.  In fact, it is quite often the revered scientists who are making mistakes and who keep having to backtrack and explain themselves, and come up with more complicated and fantastical ideas bordering on religion in order to explain themselves, such as the ideas of punctuated mutations, multiple universes, and alien seeding, and still - STILL - can't explain how such a complicated thing as a living cell developed from nothing.
     As for how a good God can allow evil in the world, that is not something that can be answered simply or tritely, or even to our satisfaction - but if you have the time and the inclination, it is also something that has been dealt with in many different ways and from many different philosophers and writers over the centuries of our existence.  Many non-Christians have used this concept to argue against the belief in God, chief among them Friedrich Neitzsche, Bertrand Russell, Karl Marx, Noam Chomsky and Ayn Rand, but they have quite a bit of intelligent opposition from religious scholars.  The arguments of thinkers like Isaac Newton, Blaise Pascal, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Lee Strobel, C.S. Lewis, and Dinesh D'Souza simply cannot be so summarily refuted, and it is infuriating watching the likes of Bill Maher and Bill Nye the Science Guy do just that with dim, simple soundbites!
     At the very least, I urge people not to let others do their thinking for them, but to get out there and read, and decide for themselves.  Either get on Neitzsche's bus and take a seat next to Bill Maher, or get on the bus driven by C.S. Lewis and take a seat next to me, but whatever you do, make it an informed decision, and don't be easily led by either side.  After a decade of studying all sides in this debate, I still find myself firmly in the Christian camp, and still quite happy and satisfied to be here, thank you!    

Truth in a Plain Brown Box

With the Christmas season upon us, I've been busy shopping, decorating the tree, raking the yard, making CD's of Christmas music, and didn't even blog this last weekend.  I'm sure I'm the only one who noticed!
This Christmas poem from 2001 was in response to someone who didn't understand what Christmas was all about, and what the fuss about Jesus really meant.  It was from her I got the line about God, Vishnu, and Allah being all the same.  There are a lot of people out there who have this first brand of Christianity or spiritualism, and it might be pretty, and it might seem wise and loving, but it is a lie, and is not the reason Jesus came here in the first place.  In fact, if this first, false version of Christianity I describe in the poem is the way things really are, there was no reason for Jesus to be here at all, as I state later in the poem:

Truth in a Plain Brown Box

by

Gary Van Buren

The room had a warm, cozy, glowing light
     As we tiptoed down the stairs
The tree was inviting and glittering bright
     As we sat in our comfortable chairs
The air was filled with a welcoming presence
     As we looked beneath the tree
At the elegantly wrapped and splendid presents
     That were placed there so lovingly
The most beautiful gift was too big to hold
     Wrapped with blue angel paper
The bow on the top was made of pure gold
     But with a slightly, unpleasant vapor

Once opened, we found it a wonderful gift
     Of acceptance for everyone!
A note inside said, "We all need a lift -
     Don't discriminate!  Don't be undone!
For God loves us all; He sees into our hearts
     He knows who is naughty and nice
Drink of the wisdom this message imparts
     It's your ticket to God's Paradise!
Nirvana, Allah, Vishnu, God -
     Don't you know it's all the same?
Let this be your lightning rod
     To help you rise from your shame!
Now is the time, and you'll see heaven's light
     Regardless of what you believe
As long as you're good and you do what is right
     It's something we all can achieve!"

We smiled because we could feel the love
     And acceptance for our fellow man
And we knew it had to be God up above
     Telling us His wonderful plan!

Enraptured by this tricky paradox
     And this sticky, soul-stealing caper
We almost didn't see the plain, small box
     Wrapped in simple, brown paper

"Brown paper?" we smirked.  "How stupid and dumb!
     I hope that nobody sees us!"
We checked the tag; who's this dumb thing from?
     It said simply, "The Truth... from Jesus"

Curious, we opened it, and found the truth
     That we had exchanged for a lie
It said, "Flee the desires of youth..." (2 Timothy 2:22)
     And we heard crowds shout, "Crucify!"  (Matthew 27:22)
We read about Jesus, when He said triumphantly,
     "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
No one comes to the father except through me." (John 14:6)
     And His words would divide like a knife (Matthew 10:34)
Then and there, we learned of original sin
     And that no one is good; no, not one! (Psalm 14:3)
And we read of the nails that pierced Jesus' skin
     When God gave His one and only Son (John 19:18)
We cried when we realized He did this for us
     To save us from hell and the grave (Hebrews 7:27)
We could not find a gift more glorious
     Than the truth and the souls it would save

For if God sees the heart, and takes only good souls
     There was no reason for Jesus to die
Although God is working the main controls
     Freedom of choice He has given you and I

So ask us which gift we love most again
     And we'll tell you, "The Truth Absolute!"
For if a good tree produces good growth, then
     From this can there be no greater fruit!
   

The One: My Christmas Poem from the Year 2000

The One

by 

Gary Van Buren

The sky, deep and blue, is filled with stars
     Shining their light from the distant past
But one, over Bethlehem, is brighter than the rest
     Highlighting travelers and the shadows they cast
As kings from the east, on heightened camelback
     Wander through vistas of endless wind and sand
To witness the birth of a miracle child
     Guided by the star and the Master's loving hand
          
          They know that the child is the One they've been praying for
          They know He's the One who will save all mankind
          They know He's the One with the power to heal
          Giving hope to the hopeless, and sight to the blind

The grass in the fields, when it's just after twilight
     Is cool and black when it's dark everywhere
And shepherds, worn and weary, keep watch o'er their flocks
     While a chill reaches through the dry desert air
When brilliance erupts from the skies up above!
     And the sheep and shepherds both tremble with fright
For angels on high are descending from heaven
     Illuminated with God's brilliant light!

          And they tell of the birth of a child they've been praying for
          They tell of the One who will save many lives
          They tell of the One who brings hope to the world
          We must heed their message: The believer survives!

An old, hidden stable has many surprises
     A nightingale, roosting, sings a sweet tune
The web of a spider hangs from the ceiling
     It glistens a welcome from the light of the moon
And Joseph and Mary, two travelers from Nazareth
     Lay down in the hay by the back corner wall
Bringing hope to the world with a gift from our God
     When Mary gives birth to the Savior of all!

          She knows He's the One that she has been crying for
          She knows He's the One who will suffer for our sins
          She knows He's the Bridge on the road to the Father
          So when we die, our life just begins

A man, spiked through His hands on a cross
     Is dying in the heat of the blazing desert sun
A crown of thorns sits atop His head
     When He dies, He cries out to God, "It is done!"
Born in a manger, died on a cross
     And all of it was part of God's divine plan
God gave us the life of His One and only Son
     By taking our sins, He has saved every man!

          He is the One who has given His life
          It is His loving gift that we all can receive
          When we accept His loving sacrifice
          And all that He asks is for us to believe

A cold weekend day and it's chilly outside
     I write a long poem while I sit on my bed
Trying to squeeze onto paper with pen
     Words and images I have stuck in my head
And though it is now 2,000 years later
     Since Jesus died on that old, wooden cross
He's alive!  He exists!  He's right here in my room
     As I try to get His message across

          I know He's the One who has saved all our souls
          And I know I am saved through what He has done
          And I'm not the only One saved in this way
          By believing in Jesus, we can all be The One!

Beyond the Nativity: A Christmas Poem

Last year, when I started this blog with stuff from my journal back then (including a review of The Christmas Cottage and a bit of hero worship for it's subject Thomas Kincade, linked here and here), I also including in my journal, but not my blog, my annual Christmas poem.  I had written "The Woman and the Dragon: A Christmas Revelation" first (linked here), a poetic retelling of Revelation Chapter 12, the story of what was taking place behind the scenes, but being based on the language of Apocalyptic literature used in the final Bible book, it was very difficult to comprehend, just like the actual chapter, and final book, of the Bible.  This poem was my attempt to soften it and explain it a bit more, and make it more accessible and enjoyable.  See if you don't agree?  

Beyond the Nativity

by Gary Van Buren

A child in a manger, and no room at the inn

Such a humble way for the Savior to begin

With wise men and angels, this miracle would start

Details of the Christmas tale we all now know by heart

Yet if “all the world’s a stage,” as Shakespeare once did write

There must be more behind the scenes that adds a little light

So look into the Holy Book for sacred confirmation:

Isaiah’s prophecies and a peek in Revelation

For there we find foretelling and many future claims

A Savior, from a virgin birth, with many sacred names

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, and thus

Prince of Peace, Immanuel, which translates “God with Us”

And if into the book of Revelation we should delve

We’re greeted by symbolic visions there in chapter twelve

A beastly, crimson dragon with loathsome heads of seven

Is actually the devil, as he was cast from heaven

Then a vision of a woman, perfectly defined

Clothed with the sun and moon, she represents mankind

Pursued by the dragon/devil, ready to give birth

Revealed when God sent his Son to be a man on earth

So much more was happening than we can see and hear

Things that chill your blood; things that angels fear

Things that are exposed when, like the Wizard of Oz

We peek behind the curtain to see the unseen cause

And there we find the love of God, who loves us all so much

That through the sacrifice of Christ, we gain God’s Holy Touch

This Christmas play’s not over yet, for Satan will be defeated

Christ’s birth and death and resurrection has God’s plan completed

Eternal paradise with God is where all of this leads

For God looks into our hearts; he knows our thoughts and needs

And Jesus will come once again to those who believe and obey

This glimpse behind the scenes unveils He is the only way

Christmas 2011

     So as I said last week in this blog, my previous attempt at this concept was simply too long, and too deep, taking the whole of Revelation: Chapter 12 and writing it out in poetic form with a single stanza introduction and the dual stanza conclusion.  The whole thing was 13 stanzas long, which is 52 lines!  Not only is it as deep and as difficult to understand as the actual chapter from Revelation it came from, and rivaling my longest poem to date, “A Purpose Driven Mass For Christ,” but because of this, the font had to be quite small to fit it onto a single page.  There’s nothing like making your poetry nearly inaccessible to anyone, especially those people who tend to love my poetry the most.  I mean, even my brothers and sister, who I consider to be thoroughly theological and political, might put it aside and never really get back to it.  There is a place for this poem, of course, but I would agree with my sister Kim, after some convincing, that sending it out as my annual Christmas poem would have been a mistake.  It’s just too lengthy and theological for the, shall we say less theological, people I send my poem to every year or hand out at work (and I did make a special trip there this year just for that purpose, even after I was let go, and being extra careful to avoid the two people there I don’t ever want to see again).

     So I took it upon myself to simplify the theme and the message.  Instead of rewriting an entire, hard to comprehend chapter of the apocalyptic writing found in the book of Revelation, I instead focused more on what the story there means, and what the images represent.  It matters little that the woman in the story eludes the dragon by being given the wings of an eagle where she will reside in the desert for “a time, times, and half a time.”  Comprehending this is a game best left to Christian scholars.  What matters is not this “letter of the law” but the essence.  What matters is that the woman represents mankind, the people of earth, and that the dragon represents Satan, and that God provided a way.

I grew up in Sunday school / I memorized the Golden Rule

And how Jesus came to set the sinner free
I know the story inside-out / And I can tell you all about

The path that led Him up to Calvary
But ask me why He loves me / And I don't know what to say

But I'll never be the same because He changed my life when He became

Everything to Me / He's more than a story / More than words on a page of history
He's the Air that I breathe / The Water I thirst for / And the Ground beneath my feet
He's Everything / Everything to Me
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/a/avalon/everything_to_me.html ]
We're living in uncertain times / And more and more I find
That I'm aware of just how fragile life can be

I want to tell the world I've found / A love that turned my life around

They need to know that they can taste and see
Now every day, I'm praying / Just to give my heart away
I want to live for Jesus / So that someone else might see that He is…

And looking back over my life at the end / I'm gonna meet You / Saying You've been
Everything to Me / You're more than a story / More than words on a page of history

You're Everything to Me / You're more than a story / More than words on a page of history
You're the Air that I breathe / The Water I thirst for / And the Ground beneath my feet --
You're Everything / Lord, You're Everything to Me...

You’re Everything to me, Jesus…

The Air I Breathe / The Song that I sing…

You’re my Life, my Love /  Everything

            - “Everything to Me”

               Avalon