Australian Thoughts at the Weekend 20th and 21st December 2008

Australian Thoughts at the Weekend 20th and 21st December 2008

Again this week, it is two poems that I wrote sometime ago. I hope you enjoy reading them.

The Band Lad

At eight I was in the Young People’s Band
All said in my band uniform I looked grand
Then I first played carols from a printed card
And my 2nd Baritone part seemed very hard
It seemed I had to play notes without reason
But this was my part in the Christmas Season
My mates on 1st Cornet seemed to have it made
As there was some tunes in what they played.

One day the YP Band Leader came to me
He said today in the Senior Band you will be
The Bandmaster wants a few more players
He said not outstanding stars but stayers
Who will benefit from the experience
When they play in the band in years hence
So with the seniors in the band I played
And a life’s banding foundation was laid.

Christmas carolling here came with summer’s heat
It seemed that some of winter’s snow would be neat
It was hot and we dripped with perspiration
As we played our Christmas season’s exultation.
A solo cornet player in sucking for air inhaled a fly
He coughed and spluttered as if he was about to die
The bandsmen all around him struggled to play on
They couldn’t for laughing until he said it was gone.

The bandsmen between carols told a story or three
And the old days brought amusement to a kid like me
Some told of days before they went to fight the war
Incidents from before I was born certainly did not bore
They held my interest as they told of other days
And how as bandsmen they carolled in other ways.
One told of playing carols in the very cold snows
When the rain froze in icicles on his cornet and nose.

Many years have passed since when carolling we marched
From street to street in the heat with tongues parched
My playing of carols has proclaimed the Saviour’s birth
And now my recounting those past days brings joy and mirth
I have played my carols on cornet, horn, tuba and trombone
But after trying euphonium I am back where I began on baritone
I played in prisons and hospitals, parks, churches and halls
On radio, and television and now I play in beachside malls.

It might be for some ice and snow and for us here flies and heat
But Christmas carolling as a Salvo bandsman you can’t beat.
It brings a sound of joy to a busy and wonderful season
With a message that God’s love for us was the only reason:
That God sent his son Jesus to live on earth among us
And it is Jesus birth that we celebrate with all this fuss.
So as Salvo bandsmen we play carols wherever we are able
To tell of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem’s humble stable.
Author: Ray Reese


Where is Christ in Christmas?

“Where is Christ in Christmas?” they ask.
I am too busy to answer as I do another task.
I have decorated the house and the tree
Oh yes, they said this year they would help me.
However again I am stuck with all the chores
Things to do and things to make without a pause
Then after that there is the Christmas cake to make
And I mustn’t forget the fruit mince pies to bake.

“Where is Christ in Christmas?” I now ponder
As I do my Christmas chores my mind does wander.
“Where is Christ?” the wise men asked of Herod the King
But he joined the chorus who would ask the same thing.
“Where is he?” said his parents on their way from Jerusalem
When suddenly they found he wasn’t travelling with them.
He was in the Temple among the wisest men of God
Doing His Father’s will He did not find at all so odd.

Where is Christ in Christmas? I now begin a list
To think of those who Christ never missed
I think of crowds but he found Bartimeus blind,
The lepers and a man in the tombstones out of his mind
A boy with his lunch and a woman at Jacob’s Well
And a woman who touched the hem he made well.
It is strange how a carpenter tells of seeds in the ground
And the one sheep, one coin and a son that must be found.

Where is Christ in Christmas? How could I face
The comments if he came to stay at my place?
Some said he will stay with them in Jericho
Surely to one of the Temple Priest’s place he’ll go.
However after all their preparations and endless fuss
He goes off with that little Tax Collector Zacchaeus.
Oh how it irritates the religious leaders when
Jesus says he is more at home with sinful men.

Where is Christ in Christmas? I think again
Surely he will be with the influential men?
The Pharisees, and scribes, the whole pious lot
Who say they live their lives without a sinful blot.
I hear he’s gone with Matthew and his friends to dine.
Drink more likely with that lot so fond of their wine.
Then when they wake to take in the morning’s fresh air
They find He is out in the garden alone and at prayer.

Where is Christ in Christmas? The thought arises
That he is off to Bethany before the sun rises
To spend the time there with Mary and Martha
(Why wasn’t Lazarus their brother called Arthur?)
“Where was Christ?” they asked when Lazarus died
But Jesus raised him to live as He too wept and cried.
They say that Martha is busy about the house doing chores
But Mary spends all her time with Jesus she adores.

Where is Christ in Christmas? It seems to me
That he is not always where we want Him to be.
We look for him in churches with or without a steeple
But more often he is out there among the people
I saw him the other day with a lady old and tired
Not a woman by her dress or manner admired
But there he was with her without any great fuss
Helping her with all her parcels to catch her bus.

Where is Christ in Christmas? Surely I dream
But to me it really, yes, it really did seem
In the shopping mall he was sitting in red
As a young blind and crippled child was led
To request a simple toy on this old man’s knee
And bring a tear to the eye of many more than me.
It may be my crazy imagination running wild
But surely it was Christ who hugged that child.

Where is Christ in Christmas? I simply pray
Christ be with us all on this Christmas day.
With my family and the crowds to church I will go
Personally to worship Christ and Him better to know.
I really want to know and see Christ in every place
To see Him in the Christmas joy on every face.
Thank Him that even in every necessary chore
I can come and you my Lord, Jesus Christ adore.
Author: Ray Reese
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