An Invaluable Gift

 

 

Anything that is invaluable

Is impossible to buy,

Just think of any God-given gift

And you will see why.

 

The air that we breathe

Is an invaluable gift,

It is free to both rich and poor

If you catch my drift.

 

We plough and we plant

But for crops to grow

The rains must come in season

And the sun must glow.

 

No water like rainwater

To quench a plant’s thirst

And if the precious sun never shone

It would even be worse.

 

In fact, there’d be no life

I mean, no life at all,

But such is unlikely to happen

Because of Almighty God.

 

Air and water, sun and rain

Are all invaluable

And through these invaluable gifts

Life is sustainable.

 

Life, another invaluable,

That the richest cannot buy

And this point is sufficiently made

When their time come to die.

 

Anything that can be bought

Could never be invaluable,

As long as any value is attached

That thing is buyable.

 

Air, water, sun and rain

And life are invaluable gifts

But if you notice the poem’s title,

‘Gift’ you should not miss.

 

Every good and perfect gift

Comes from our God above

But there is one above all others

Compliments: God’s love.

 

It is the gift of life

And I don’t mean natural life

Instead, I mean the kind of life

That outlives all strife.

 

 

I speak of eternal life

The promise of the Father,

That is promised to the born-again

Here and in the hereafter.

 

Whosoever will may come

And claim this precious gift,

It is not a fairy tale I assure you,

Neither legend nor myth.

 

It’s not cheap by any means

Though it is free to us,

But it cost the blood of someone;

That someone is Jesus.

 

Salvation is not cheap

Though it is readily available,

There is no earthly cost attached

Since to us it’s invaluable.

 

 

It is infinitely invaluable

Purchased with Jesus’ blood

And what he did for all mankind

Nobody else could.

 

No other was good enough

To pay the price of sin

But Jesus, having achieved this task,

Now draws us all to him.

 

An invaluable gift

Of full and free salvation,

Why deny yourself of such a gift-

Such wonderful redemption?

 

John 3:16

 

For God so loved the world,

That he gave his only begotten Son,

That whosoever believeth in him should not perish,

But have everlasting life.

 

Stewart Russell © June 19, 2024

A Conversation with Death

 

 

I had a conversation with Death

But not in the way you think,

It was not a near-death experience-

I was never on the brink.

 

I was not on a hospital bed

With tubes sticking out all over me,

Neither was I on my death-bed

With my demise soon to be.

 

I was very much in the flesh

And as conscious as they come

Thinking with lucidity and clarity

During that conversation.

 

I raised some issues with Death

Which I shall detail below,

I know this is not the best of topics

But hear me out before you go.

 

Inconsiderateness came up-

This was high on the list

And death was careful to point out

That he has never had a miss.

 

He didn’t care about anyone

Or their particular circumstance,

You could be a vagrant on the street

Or be living on a ranch.

 

You may be the poorest of the poor

Or the richest of the rich,

When I come a-calling, he said,

None can make me switch.

 

Untimely was another aspect

That I asked death to talk about

But after listening very carefully

I had to throw this out.

 

“Untimely?” he repeated the word,

“Where did you hear that?

I am on time, in time all the time

And history shows this fact.

 

It matters not your age or stage,

That is not my concern,

It’s not untimely but appointed-

That you have got to learn.

 

I take babies in their cribs

And I abort them in the womb,

People’s grouses never ever matter

I don’t allow any wiggle room.”

 

 

“How do you view?” I asked Death,

“The notion of negotiation?”

“It just doesn’t exist," he replied,

"I only know about termination.”

 

“So, what about people

Who went ever so close to death?”

“The bottom line is, my friend,

It was not their time to rest.

 

If it were, he continued,

They too would have been gone,

Understand, I don’t miss appointments,

Not a single one.”

 

“Some people pray and fast

When their loved ones are dying

And they attribute such recoveries

To their degree of praying.”

 

When I posed this to Death,

I was sure that I had him nailed

But Death’s response was so sharp,

I knew that I had failed.

 

 

“Don’t you know the Word?”

And if you do, don’t you believe it?

A time is appointed, the Bible says,

And that’s a biblical edict!

 

I simply do what I do,” he said,

“Death’s not mine to control

Though, given the many ways I come,

People say I must be bold.”

 

And this is true, I realize,

It is at the most inopportune time

That Death stops people in their tracks

When he’s not even on their mind.

 

I dared to ask one final question

Knowing Death must be on his way

For at no point did I ever forget

That every day is Death’s day.

 

Whether locally or regionally

Or across the far-flung world,

Many are reeling under Death’s impact

As his fury is daily unfurled.

 

“Will you be always around?”

This was the final question I asked,

“Or will you suffer a similar fate as well

And be relegated to the past?”

 

Of course, I knew the answer

But I had only asked Death for so

And you too can know the answer

For it is not difficult to know.

 

Turn with me right now

To 1 Corinthians 15: 25 and 26

And you will see there the promise given

When Death will also be fixed.

 

“For he must reign,” meaning Jesus,

“Till he hath put all enemies under his feet.

The last enemy that shall be destroyed

Is DEATH.”

 

I am fully convinced that one day

Death will also come my way,

I too will go the way of all the earth

On that appointed day.

 

How or when that will happen,

I really do not know

But I know a resurrection awaits

When Death will have to go.

 

Stewart Russell © March 22, 2023