A Better Feast

Each year I give a present and a poem to my Year 12 Literature class when they finish school. That time is approaching for the class of 2013, and I’ve had on my heart this year that the thing I want them most of all to finish school knowing is that God’s grace is the most abundant, rich blessing they can hope to find. Too many teenagers enter life thinking of God as a kill-joy and faith as a set of rules and obstacles. If I could tell my students one thing about God, it would be that He is rich in joy and love and that knowing Him is the greatest feast of all. I’ve tried to express something of this poem for my students.

A Better Feast

“Life,” they say, “is a wondrous feast,
A journey too, from day to night.
Adventuring from west to east.”

But time is short and must be seized:
“So run and dance while there’s still light.”
(Life, they say, is a wondrous feast.)

“Soon,” they say, “all things will cease;
Embrace the moment while you might.
Look, explore, from west to east

And take in all, from best to least.
Day soon fades, your chance is slight.
Quick, enjoy the wondrous feast!”

Grace, I say, is a better feast,
Eternity a grander sight;
Look, explore, from west to east –

Breath and time in Him increase
In ever-growing breadth and height:
Such life, I say, will be a feast,
When God pours forth from west to east.