For Bajans It’s Two

 

 

Twelve days of Christmas

But for Bajans it’s two,

Christmas Day and its extension

Is the major view.

 

Christmas Day is gone

And so is Boxing Day,

Christmas Day and its extension

Has now passed away.

 

Boxing Day as we know

Is Christmas bank holiday

And is celebrated as Christmas

In much the same way.

 

Back in those days

When there were slaves

Boxing Day was their Christmas

And not Christmas Day.

 

 

 

Massa and his family

Celebrated on Day #1

While the leftovers were boxed

And later passed on.

 

Given to the slaves

For them to enjoy:

House slaves, field slaves and others;

All in Massa’s employ.

 

Thus, a clear example

Of the rich man’s table,

On Boxing Day, the poor received

A plenteous sample.

 

Christmas Day #2,

This day has gone also,

We turn our gaze on Old Year’s

For the final show.

 

Watching in the New

In worship or in revelry:

Giving praise and thanks to God

Or making merry.

 

 

 

No 12 days of Christmas

For Bajans, only two,

The Christmas songs will continue,

Christmas, we bid adieu.

 

Christmas lights we’ll see

Up until January 6;

A residual reminder of Christmas

Then they’ll be unfixed.

 

Taken down and stored

Till December next year

When we’ll set them up and wait

For Christmas to appear.

 

Meanwhile, this Christmas

Has now gone away:

Not twelve days but Bajans’ two

Until next year!

 

Stewart Russell © December 27, 2025

 

King Herod

 

 

I was that king

At the time of his birth,

Some said that this was the time

When God came to earth.

 

Emmanuel, they said,

Meaning God with us

And they said that the baby’s name

Was Jesus.

 

 Magi came inquiring

Where he may be found

But as far as I knew at the time

One king was around.

 

This was yours truly,

Herod the Great,

The king I suppose the people

Loved to hate.

 

I was ruthless and evil

And had my own way,

You would remember the massacre

I caused in that day.

 

All the male babies

I had decreed to die,

All of them two years and under,

Dare any defy!

 

 

 

I had fooled the magi,

At least, I thought so

But my expectation of their return

Was a no-show.

 

Worship whom?

A nondescript baby?

Me?  The great and mighty Herod?

Are you crazy?

 

Do not blame me

For what I did that day,

Charge those magi from the east

Who went another way.

 

Be in my shoes,

What would you have done?

Just quietly abdicate the throne

And cowardly run?

 

 

 

Well, not me, Herod,

Unless it was Caesar,

The Roman god-like Emperor

Who had so ordered.

 

Get the order right!

It was him and then me,

And besides, no one in the palace

Knew about this baby.

 

I tried to slay him

But I must admit I failed,

All my soldiers failed miserably

In this sordid detail.

 

 

 

One piece of information

That Herod did not give

Was that an angel had told Joseph

He no longer lived.

 

So, Herod met his demise

Like all earthly kings

However, Jesus is alive forever

And salvation brings.

 

Stewart Russell © December 16, 2025

 

God

 

 

God is not a conclusion

Resulting for man’s intrusion,

Neither is He some religious illusion

Out of our confusion.

 

God is not our narrative

Thus, our creation or idol,

Neither is He some three-wish genie

We call on when in trouble.

 

God is not the figment

Of some insane imagination

Or of some mega church apostle

To woo his congregation.

 

 

No creature can cage up God

No matter who or what,

This Universe is not big enough

To build for Him a box.

 

Nothing can contain God

Except a believer’s heart

And such by God’s own initiation

From the very start.

 

For He dares to indwell

The heart of the born-again

Not entrapped like a fairy genie,

But therein to reign.

 

 

A human body, His temple

Unlike the temple of old

Which once designed for His worship

Became an object of gold.

 

A replacement for God,

An idolatrous albatross

By which, all seeming to be gain,

Was eventual loss.

 

Stone cannot contain God

Or the gold of the world,

Only His eternal infallible Truth

Aka, the Living Word.

 

By God’s own allowance

A house was built for God

But for men it became a Babel,

Only not as tall.

 

 

Soon this temple had to go

As Jesus himself predicted

And like an errant unpaying tenant,

Old Israel was evicted.

 

To rubble and to stone

It was razed to the ground

Such that even up to the present,

No Jew is temple bound.

 

There’s news about one

To be rebuilt in the future

But any such endeavor, I dare say,

Misses the bigger picture.

 

God lives not in houses

Or church or edifice grand

But in the hearts of His children

That dare to take a stand.

 

A stand against all wrong

Regardless of the source,

A stand against every injustice

That the lawless enforce.

 

 

God is not the end result

Of some Socratic syllogism,

Neither of logical deductive reasoning

Nor human mechanism.

 

But, the Alpha and Omega

Without beginning or end:

Not the beginning, but the Beginner,

As the Scriptures contend.

 

 

God is our Saviour,

The Saviour of the World,

Indwelling every believer’s heart

That harkens to His Word.

 

Stewart Russell © March 21, 2025

 

Worship Christ the Lord

 

 

The shepherds heard the news

As they plied their trade,

Watching sheep was their job

They did both night and day.

 

Tidings of great joy

The angels said to them

And this the shepherds understood

Was in the town of Bethlehem.

 

 

They didn’t worship the angels

When they saw them appear

But as the Bible shows us clearly,

They were sore afraid.

 

The Bible does not say

They worshipped the baby Jesus

But we can assume that this occurred

Without unnecessary fuss.

 

The angel had said to them

“Which is Christ, the Lord,”

This in referencing the baby Jesus,

Who came to be the Saviour.

 

 

The wisemen saw a star

That was unlike any other,

Unlike the others it was slowly moving

And they decided to follow.

 

They didn’t worship the star

But merely followed its trail,

And the fact it led to Herod’s palace

Says it’s not a fairy tale.

 

Their worship was reserved

For the baby Jesus

And having left the palace they discovered

Herod they could not trust.

 

 

His worship was a setup

The baby Jesus to destroy

But rather than return to Herod

Another way they employed.

 

All of this is to say to us

Christmas need not be pagan,

Surely it isn’t so for the born again

Who worship Christ, God’s Son.

 

For he is Christ the Lord

Just as the angel said

And rather than worship Christmas

Worship Christ instead.

 

Use the opportunity, I plead,

To follow the shepherds’ lead

And spread this Gospel message

With like fervour and zeal.

 

 

 

For unto us was born that day

A Saviour, Christ the Lord,

And to God, the Son and Holy Spirit,

Worship we should accord.

 

And not to another:

We should worship the Lord God only

And Him only

Should we serve.

 

Stewart Russell © December 17, 2024

 

Wisemen Seek

 

 

The shepherds were nigh,

The wisemen afar,

While the former knew the way

The latter followed a star.

 

How they came together

Only God knows

But they met at Herod’s palace,

The Bible shows.

 

They sought Jesus

Is what Herod was told

And he wanted to see him too:

A liar quite bold.

 

Journeying for two years

Having seen the sign,

This Jesus had to be palace-born

Is what they opined.

 

But he wasn’t there

And Herod couldn’t help,

Though his cunning expression

Showed how he felt.

 

 

“Search diligently for him

And when you find this king

Come and bring me word again

That I may worship him.”

 

Wisemen seek Jesus

And for the right reason,

Being aware that Jesus is the reason

For this season.

 

Take Christ out

And mas is all you’ve got

And though many are still deluded,

Without him is naught.

 

Hence, wisemen seek,

Seek to know the Christ

Who gave himself on Mt Calvary

As an atoning sacrifice.

 

 

Paying our debt,

The price of man’s sin

And inviting the whosoever-will

To come to him.

 

The wisest decision

That anyone can make

When in true repentance we say,

“Jesus, my heart take.”

 

He is a wiseman

That seeks the Saviour,

Just like those wisemen of old

Who found his favour.

 

Today if you hear him

Harden not your heart

But let this Christmas season

Be your initial start.

 

 

Wise men seek Christ

And wise women too,

Your star may be this truth today

That brings him into view.

 

Stewart Russell © December 9, 2024

 

Polysyndeton

 

 

What a strange word

But what does it mean?

I will show you in this poem

What I have gleaned.

 

Verse 3 and verse 5

Of Genesis chapter 22:

Here is a little assignment

I want you to do.

 

Focus on those verses

And you’ll get an idea

Of an interesting polysyndeton

Standing in the way.

 

Find the word repeated

More than any other,

Checking just these two verses

Shouldn’t be a bother.

 

You can pause here

Before you continue

And concentrate on the task

I have given you.

 

 

You must be saying,

What a really weird name

And before I had understood,

I thought the same.

 

I was studying this text

In a way unlike before

When an Internet presentation

Shone light in my door.

 

It was a study showing

How we have strayed

Regarding Bible based worship

In a significant way.

 

Mentioned in the Bible

First at Genesis 22 verse 5

Where God a timely sacrifice

Did provide.

 

In the place of Isaac

A ram temporarily sufficed:

A foreshadowing in actual fact

Of God’s sacrifice.

 

The sacrifice of Jesus

His promised Son

On whom He did established

His heavenly kingdom.

 

You’ve had much time

To find that word:

The first known conjunction

Most have heard.

 

 

Genesis 22:3

 

 And Abraham rose up early in the morning,

And saddled his ass,

And took two of his young men with him,

And Isaac his son,

And clave the wood for the burnt offering,

And rose up,

And went unto the place

Of which God had told him.

 

Genesis 22:5

 

And Abraham said unto his young men,

Abide ye here with the ass;

And I

And the lad will go yonder

And worship,

And come again to you.

 

Seven “ands” in verse 3

And five “ands” in verse 5

And at the purpose of this poem

We have now arrived.

 

 

Polysyndeton is the name

For this use of a conjunction,

No doubt English teachers today

Would have an objection.

 

But it’s a description

Rather detailed, I believe,

That Abraham specifically followed

As from God he received.

 

Worship is our response

To God for Jesus Christ,

The Lamb from God, the Father,

His enduring sacrifice.

 

Typified in these verses

By a rather strange word

Showing the length God went to

To redeem His world.

 

Matthew 2:21

 

And she

Shall bring forth a child

And shall call his name Jesus

And he shall save his people

From their sin.

 

Stewart Russell © October 22, 2024

 

Is He Yours?

 

 

You may have heard the narrative

About the little girl and boy

Who would often play church

And church roles employ.

 

He would lead the song service

And she would preach the Word

And together they would have worship

As best they could afford.

 

She preached a stirring challenge

Being somewhat older than he,

And he would lead in the choruses

He could sing from memory.

 

Well one day the roles changed

And what a surprising switch!

Big sister led the worship session

And little brother was in a fit.

 

He thought of what to say

As she led in his accustomed role

And it’s interesting, to say the least,

How the narrative did unfold.

 

She ended her session with,

“Now brother, it’s you turn.”

And as he walked to the front of church

He recalled what he had learned.

 

He preached his tiny message

From the Biblical text he read

And though it did not last a minute,

What he said was well said.

 

It was a word to the unsaved

And an invitation re the same,

All that could be said when he finished

Was Amen in Jesus’ name.

 

 

He took his text from Psalm 23

Just a few words there:

“The Lord is my shepherd,” the little boy said,

In a voice distinctly clear.

 

The word was duly delivered:

The Gospel according to the Psalms

Followed by the question “Is he yours?”

An invitation most grand!

 

A most fitting eight-word message

As the Gospel came to the fore,

“The Lord is my shepherd,” the little boy said,

And finished with, Is he yours?”

 

That is the critical question

That should be on everyone’s mind:

Is the Christ of Christmas your shepherd

At this Christmas time?

 

Stewart Russell © December 13, 2022