Every Child ~ A Poem

Last updated on: November 26, 2014 at 3:49 pm by Jenya T. Beachy

Every Child ~ A Poem 2014-11-26T15:49:02-07:00 Jenya T. Beachy

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Words are hard. I am right now hopeful and happy to be gathering my Family together for meetings/food/games and also furiously angry at the unholy bullshit in the world. I was trying to write something intelligent and inspiring about both of these things, but then Matthew found this poem by his Baba and I realized that this pretty much sums it up. This was written sometime between 1964 and 1969.

EVERY CHILD by Alexander T. Coyle

If God once came to earthly men,
A white child,
A Jewish baby,
In Bethlehem,
In 5 or 8 B.C.,
Could not God come again,
A yellow child,
A Chinese baby –
Even a Red Chinese baby –
In Hong Kong
In 1964 A.D.?
Or a brown Buddhist baby in Saigon
Or a black non-violent baby in Birmingham?

And what if the baby has for parents rich Roman Catholics?
Or poor, ignorant Holy Rollers?
And what if the baby is a blonde little blue-eyed girl,
Or a blind little boy –
Or club-footed – or retarded?

Or what if he is beaten dead by drunken parents,
Or starved slowly by economic conditions,
Or condemned to superstition by blind tradition,
Or to ignorance by segregation?

How can we fail to see
That God might be –
Oh, that God has to be –
In any baby –
No, in every baby;
And treat each child perhaps
As though he were a Christ
And peer into his eyes for truth
And examine his hand for right
And his little chuckle for freedom
And stand by in awe
As we watch him grow
And learn
And love
And bring some glint of God –
Or blinding light of heaven –
Into the world?

Previous Post

November 21, 2014

Thanksgiving and Taking

Next Post

December 5, 2014 Slow Thinking, Slower Words on #Ferguson #MikeBrown #EricGarner

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Air Animal Products Arts and Crafts Author Big Gods Books Buddhism Celebs Chickens Comestibles Deep Well ~ Great Heart Society Dirt-Heart Farmette Drink Earth Elemental Practices Fauna Festivals Fiction? Fire Flora Food Goats Holidays-Holy Days Homework! Invocations Jenya T. Beachy Justice Kitchen Witchery Meat Birds Meditations Moon Magick News Off-Topic Ole Time Good Spell Feri Pagan Tent Revival Poetry Practices Prayers Predators Queer Rant Recovery RIP Rituals Saints and Prophets of Shapeshifter Seasonal Shapeshifter Tradition Small Gods Songs and Chants Spellcraft Stories The Secret Country of Yourself The Village The Witches' Toolkit Travel Turkeys Uncategorized Updates Urban Pagan Homestead Videos Water

Select a Month February 2020 January 2020 November 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 October 2018 August 2018 May 2018 April 2018 February 2018 October 2017 September 2017 July 2017 January 2017 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What was the name of the disciple who doubted Jesus' resurrection?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Thomas Peter James John