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!