One Solitary Life

I just posted the following article on FNC's Christmas Devotional blog. I'm posting Christmas-themed devotionals there every day until Christmas day.

A few weeks ago, I saw the Radio City Music Hall's Christmas Show featuring the Rockettes. It was absolutely spectacular. The lights, the music, the dancing, the snow, santa, the elves, it was all so "Christmassy." Near the end of the show, they started building a living nativity scene right before our eyes. It was unbelievable. All the glitzy, sparkling, frivolous fun faded into the background and the stage became a beautiful tableau of Biblical characters, including Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, shepherds, sheep, wise men and camels. Then a projection screen dropped down in front of the scene and the following words were projected and read out loud with music underscoring the entire scene. It was the perfect way to end the evening! I've included a link to a slide show version of these words with music. Click here or on the title and you'll be re-directed.

One Solitary Life

He was born in an obscure village
The child of a peasant woman   
He grew up in another obscure village 
Where he worked in a carpenter shop 
Until he was thirty   

He never wrote a book   
He never held an office   
He never went to college   
He never visited a big city   
He never travelled more than two hundred miles 
From the place where he was born   
He did none of the things 
Usually associated with greatness   
He had no credentials but himself

He was only thirty three

His friends ran away 
One of them denied him   
He was turned over to his enemies 
And went through the mockery of a trial   
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves   
While dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing 
The only property he had on earth   

When he was dead
He was laid in a borrowed grave 
Through the pity of a friend

Nineteen centuries have come and gone
And today Jesus is the central figure of the human race 
And the leader of mankind’s progress   

All the armies that have ever marched 
All the navies that have ever sailed 
All the parliaments that have ever sat 
All the kings that ever reigned put together 
Have not affected the life of mankind on earth 
As powerfully as that one solitary life

(c) 1926 - Dr James Allan