A Christmas riddle
So who was the first to recognise him,
Jesus, God’s only son,
To leap and to jump for joy at the coming
Of God’s promised, special one?
Was it the wise men, led by a star,
Travelling from the east,
Laying before the child the gifts
Borne on the back of their beasts?
It wasn’t the wise men, sadly, not them,
Travelling from the east.
They were, as it happens, late to the party.
The child was a year old, at least!
So who was the first to recognise him,
Jesus, God’s only son,
To leap and to jump for joy at the coming
Of God’s promised, special one?
Was it old Simeon, stood in the temple,
Watching and waiting each day,
Promised by God that he would not die,
Till that special child came his way?
It wasn’t old Simeon, sadly, not him,
Although the Lord’s promise came true.
For, holding the child in his arms, he rejoiced
At everything Jesus would do.
So who was the first to recognise him,
Jesus, God’s only son,
To leap and to jump for joy at the coming
Of God’s promised, special one?
Was it the shepherds, sat on a hillside,
Watching their flocks by night,
Sent into town by an angel from heaven,
Who’d given them quite a fright?
It wasn’t the shepherds, sadly, not them,
Shocked by that angel bright,
Who shouted their way back from Bethlehem
And woke up the town that night.
So who was the first to recognise him,
Jesus, God’s only son,
To leap and to jump for joy at the coming
Of God’s promised, special one?
Then surely it was his own mother Mary,
And Joseph stood by her side,
There with the animals, there at his birth,
There when he cried his first cry.
It wasn’t young Mary, sadly, not her
Nor Joseph, her husband true
But Mary was there when it happened, of course,
And her loyal husband, too.
So who was the first to recognise him,
Jesus, God’s only son,
To leap and to jump for joy at the coming
Of God’s promised, special one?
Elizabeth’s yet-to-be-born baby, John,
Leaped in her womb for joy.
For when pregnant Mary came for a visit
He recognised her baby boy!
Out from the mouths of babes comes praise
And, I guess, from the feet of babes, too!
For John gave a kick, and that did the trick,
And Elizabeth knew what he knew:
That there in their presence, in young Mary’s womb
Lay the saviour God promised would come.
And they all rejoiced, mother, cousin and child
At the coming of God’s special one.
For John was the first to recognise him,
Jesus, God’s only son,
To leap and to jump for joy at the coming
Of God’s promised, special one!
