What was true of King David and true of King Solomon has, in fact, been true of every person to whom we have bowed or pledged our allegiance.
His feet are clay.
As has ever been true of kings.
~
But I have heard the bitter weeping of the envoys of peace, and I am not satisfied with explanations or arguments or platitudes.
I go on dreaming. I go on singing. I go on telling tales of a better King.
This King will “take pity on the weak and the needy.”
This King will “defend the afflicted among the people.”
This King will “be like showers watering the earth.”
~
My eyes have seen the King in his beauty.
I have glimpsed a land that stretches afar.
It is a peaceful abode, and a place of broad rivers and streams.
No galley with oars rides them. In this place, even the lame carry off plunder.
Because the loaves and fishes are ever being broken and passed on, they multiply. Because the jar of oil is always being emptied, that jar is never dry. There is more than enough for me and my neighbor.
There is even enough for my enemy.
~
This is the song I sing, yet I cannot always be singing.
When I pause my song, when I wake, or when my story reaches its end, I weep.
I weep because the king we hold in our hands falls so very short of the King who ever walks on the edge of my dreams.
I sit by the river, and I weep when I remember all that I have seen. I weep when I remember the prayer of generations:
Thy kingdom come … on earth as it is in heaven.
(Inspired by Psalm 72, Psalm 137, and Isaiah 33)
Christie Purifoy earned a PhD in English Literature at the University of Chicago before trading the classroom for a farmhouse, a garden, and a blog. She is the author of Roots and Sky: A Journey Home in Four Seasons. and Placemaker: Cultivating Places of Comfort, Beauty, and Peace.
