Having started writing poetry as a child, Rhona Jack, Managing Director of Blue Click PR continues to use this gift in order to help people focus on the real meaning of Christmas. The tradition began eighteen years ago when she worked for multinational toy company HASBRO in London.
She observed at close quarters the commercialism behind Christmas where toy companies often make half to three quarters of the year's profits in the last quarter of the year. As a practising Christian, Rhona felt compelled to contrast this with the real reason behind what we celebrate at this time of year.
Mark Jones of BBC Radio Wiltshire invited Rhona into the studio to share this poem on air on BBC Radio Wiltshire on 27th December 2009 at 8.40am. He asked how she gets the inspiration to put pen to paper and she says she cannot write without an anointing from God that releases the creative gift and flow of words that seem to fall onto the paper in a fast stream. The verses often need very little editing.
Incarnation, Salvation
What Love is this?
That God came to earth
That He cloaked His deity
Through a Virgin birth?
The God who flung
Brightest stars into space
Chose to belong
To the human race
He chose to conform
To the law of gravity
That He created
Through His majesty
He chose the constraints
Of taking human form
So He shared with us
Our need to keep warm
Jesus chose to become
A helpless tiny babe
So He’d understand
The things we crave
Have you seen infinity?
Wrapped in the babe’s soft hand
Did you spot omnipotence
Revealed in the God man?
He could have remained
As a heavenly being
But then he’d have been
Distant God - only ‘seeing’
He wouldn’t have experienced
Pain, thirst or hunger
Nor the desperate need
For safe sleep in a bunker
He wouldn’t have felt
The loving touch of His mother
Or known the breaking heart
Of God the Father
It was unconditional love
Fulfilling God’s plan
That drove our Saviour
To become a Holy man
A refugee in Egypt
In a carpenter’s home
Jesus knows that we too
Are sometimes poor and alone
As He grew in stature
Amongst God and man
He slowly revealed
God’s salvation plan
As a youngster He taught
In Jewish synagogues
Astounded the teachers
With His knowledge of God
As He walked this earth
His compassion grew
For the lost, poor and lonely
He instinctively knew
As Christ He could read
Our hearts and minds
God’s omnipotent power
Healed the sick, lame and blind
As an all-knowing Rabbi
He drew large crowds to himself
For the wisdom He taught
Built up spiritual wealth
The Sermon on the Mount
Was a revolutionary way
To live one’s life
Against the tide of the day
So from refugee in Egypt
With parentage in doubt
To the high courts of Herod
Accused - yet silent throughout!
And who would have thought
This babe’s soft hand….
Would be nailed outstretched
To a Roman cross as a man
Sacrificial love took him
To Calvary’s cruel cross
To the depths of hell
And the crucifying loss….
Of His own human life
Under the world’s burden of sin
Paving the way for Triumph
Now God gathers us in
For Jesus’ resurrection
Is The Truth, The Life, The Way
So we can be washed clean
Through what began Christmas Day
Look for God’s priceless gift
Beyond your Christmas tree
It is freedom from sin
An amazing life - guilt-free!
He reassures us His love
In which we can safely abide
Is infinitely, unimaginably
Deep, high and wide
The conscience we have
Tells us right from wrong
It was planted by God
To guide us lifelong
He knows how we struggle
To do the right thing
That’s why Jesus modelled
How to live pure, without sin
And because He knows
Our weakness; strong desires
He sent His Holy Spirit
To fan weak embers into fire
God decided to take part
In His created human race
We are welcomed, unashamed
By kind eyes in His loving face
So pick up the box
Untie your God-given gift
And His merciful forgiveness
The stain of sin will shift
Just open the lid
And take a long look inside
There’s no need this Christmas
From the Saviour to hide!
© 2009 Rhona Jack
About the Author.
Rhona used to be a chorister in an Anglican church, St. Mary's, Sholing, Southampton from the age of 6 to 16. She loved singing songs such as 'Amazing Grace'and the psalms in the Psalter. As a teenager she left the church having become disillusioned. She went to Thames Polytechnic, Woolwich, London to study and became a born again Christian age 19. She values the rich heritage of the Anglican church and the liturgy, but says that the real meaning of those words really came alive for her after she had begun a personal relationship with Jesus Christ age 19.
The author retains the right to be identified with this work at all times. It is not to be copied or distributed without permission. For permission please contact Rhona on +44 (0) 7866 546221
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