Poem - I saw a child

I SAW A CHILD

I saw a child
A little girl of eight or nine
Kneeling on the polished floor
Arms raised up high
Palms upturned
Eye lids lightly closed
Her face serene
Suffused with radiant joy.
A child of eight or nine, I tell you
A child of eight or nine.

O God,
How had this little mite
Discovered, at such a tender age,
What I so long for after many years,
The way into your heart?
This lovely face
Upturned in simple ecstasy
Towards Reality?

My stony heart was moved.
Were it not so granite hard
I would have wept.
For here, in childlike innocence
She did not question,
Reason ‘why?’ ....
She knew.
For she had discovered,
There upon her knees,
Oblivious of all around,
That Christ lives and is wonderful.
She knew, just then, if not before
How much her Jesus loved her.

Lester Edenborough - Feb 2001