The Prints of
the Prince of Peace
Copyright
2006 L.Anguss Smith
May be used for non-profit ministry purposes
See those small prints pressed into the Judean soil
They’re the first footprints of our Savior.
Soon they’ll be found in Egypt: Herod’s plan to foil,
By fleeing his deadly behavior.
Later, they’re traveling northward to Galilee,
To old Nazareth city, to reside.
There, His prints will be with those of his family,
Who, will all His earthly needs provide.
He is Immanuel: God with us,
With us indeed. And His prints move on.
Till twelve, despite the fables, his life’s quite simple,
He displayed no Godlike features.
Then missing: He was found, inquiring at the temple,
Impressing astute Hebrew teachers.
From here, Biblical accounts do not track His prints,
As He grew in wisdom and physique.
For until about age thirty, His timing prevents
Him from revealing His divine mystique
He is Immanuel: God with us,
With us indeed. And His prints move on.
They are observed by the River Jordon’s edge,
The waters in which John did baptize,
From there to the wilderness test, where he’d not hedge,
Using scriptures to defeat Satan’s lies.
In intense hunger, He did not succumb to turning
The surrounding dessert stones to bread,
Nor cast himself down, yielding to Satan’s yearning,
But, chose to honor His father instead.
He is Immanuel: God with us,
With us indeed. And His prints move on.
Many sets of footprints led to Cana’s marriage feast
Where the host’s repute was on the line.
But, only one belonged to Him, whose word released,
Could turn water into finest wine.
Thus for the first time Christ reveals His divine glory
And they that follow Him believe,
That what He has told them, is not some fabled story
Nor, has he’s practiced to deceive.
He is Immanuel: God with us,
With us indeed. And His prints move on.
His first miracle done, His ministry’s begun,
He recruits more ordinary men,
Including one, who was His mother Mary’ son
And one that would sell-out to sin.
He will instruct them in his discipleship school
Concerning the true Kingdom of God,
While doubters ask, isn’t this just some carpenter fool,
Who’s taken on a rabbi facade?
He is Immanuel: God with us,
With us indeed. And His prints move on.
Wherever His footprints were found, He would often pause,
To heal the ailing or raise the dead.
He taught the large crowds about His heavenly cause,
Then fed them from a lad’s fish and bread.
His footprints trailed Him through the full temple courts
Where there were countless false profits made.
So, He cleansed His father’s house of those evil sorts,
Angrily, stripping them of their trade.
He is Immanuel: God with us,
With us indeed. And His prints move on.
Pressed hard by the crowds at the end of one day,
Of ministering to their needs,
Our exhausted Lord feels the need to get away,
So to a small sea ship He recedes.
A sudden storm rages! The ship is about to sink.
Awakened, Christ says, peace be still!
Sailors ask, what kind of man is this, do you think,
That the winds and sea obey His will?
He is Immanuel: God with us,
With us indeed. And His prints move on.
Another storm rages! Christ’s prints are on the water.
Eleven men stay, fearing they will drown.
Although Christ’s school will be each man’s alma mater,
Only in one, could enough faith be found.
Peter cries out; if that is you Lord, bid me come
Come! … He hears over the squalling sea.
With his eyes on Christ, he steps out to become
Part of water-walking history.
He is Immanuel: God with us,
With us indeed. And His prints move on.
Yet another storm rages! But, not on the sea or ocean,
This storm’s within a sinful women’s heart.
Christ’s prints are in the waters of great emotion:
They’re the tears of a worshipful tart.
She bathes His feet with her tears: drying with her hair,
Thus her love exceeds the Pharisees’.
And Christ forgives her, while others ask unaware,
Who’s this that forgives iniquities?
He is Immanuel: God with us,
With us indeed. And His prints move on.
Beggar Bartimaeus, blind from birth cries out to
Christ just outside of Jericho city.
The Master asked; what do you want me to do?
In faith he answers, I want to see.
And the very first image His eyes had ever seen
Was of Christ his healer’s loving face.
Then, he followed Our Lord away from the scene,
Ever free from his former disgrace.
He is Immanuel: God with us,
With us indeed.
He can see them and their prints move on
For over three years, the prints of our Lord’s well-worn feet
Have imprinted the Promised Land’s earth.
But now, time is growing near for His divine feat,
That’s been His fate; long before His birth.
Thus, now He turns toward Jerusalem’s enclave,
Coming to the town of Martha and Mary
As well as Lazarus whom he’d raised from the grave.
There He’d rest: for soon… our cross he’d carry.
He is Immanuel: God with us,
With us indeed. And His prints move on.
Now there are eight hoof prints, that of an ass and colt.
As Our Lord rides in kingly fashion,
Not for a political revolt,
But rather the countdown to His Passion.
With crowds yelling Hosanna and waving their palms,
Christ rides toward Jerusalem’s gate,
Fulfilling the one-hundred and eighteenth of Psalms.
Then weeping o’er Jerusalem’s fate.
He is Immanuel: God with us,
With us indeed. And His prints move on.
His prints are on the palm branches, strewn along the street
He appears, sincerely respected,
But for Him, the Hosanna’s are all bitter-sweet,
He knows, He’ll be utterly rejected.
No triumphant day was this first day of the week
That day would come the next Sunday,
Then ultimately with Satan’s final critique,
When he faces his last reckoning day.
He is Immanuel: God with us,
With us indeed. And His prints move on.
Christ’s last meal’s before Him and He’s not yet come
To His deep corporeal suffering,
But, the moment is near, when our Lord will become,
Between God and man…. a buffering.
Drawing water He washes His disciples’ feet
Even those of Judas; His betrayer.
Thus God bends down from heaven’s lofty mercy seat
And bathes the feet of sin’s portrayer.
He is Immanuel: God with us,
With us indeed. And His prints move on.
Now see them in the Garden, as His friends slumber,
He’s agonizing over coming events,
Not my will but thine, He prays three times in number
As His life, to His father, He presents
On no other occasion do we see this God-Man,
Stressed so by His humanity,
Yet in order to fulfill His father’s divine plan,
He surrenders in deep humility.
He is Immanuel: God with us,
With us indeed. And His prints move on
Even as He is speaking to Peter, James and John
Judas shows up with a large angry mob
And kisses Jesus’ cheek as they had agreed upon.
Thus he completes Satan’s dastardly job.
But this action did not seal his spiritual fate,
For Christ would die for his sin as well
If upon Christ’s forgiveness he’d chosen to wait,
Today, he’d not be in the devil’s hell.
He is Immanuel: God with us,
With us indeed. And His prints move on
Christ is led away and shuffled from court to courts
Until again Pilate’s His judge,
Who finds no fault in Him, despite Jewish reports,
But yet, His enemies would not budge.
Will you have me release Barabbas or this one,
Who stands without any guilt, in my eyes?
Barabbas the crowd cries: rejecting God’s only son.
Thus, He is condemned by foolish lies.
He is Immanuel: God with us,
With us indeed. And His prints move on
Crucify Him, Crucify Him the crowd replies,
When Pilot asks them, what shall I do?
So he relents, then on basin water relies
To rid himself of the whole ado.
He then sent Christ to be scourged and crucified
In the Roman atrocious style,
Hoping that His enemies would be pacified,
By the results of this flawed trial.
He is Immanuel: God with us,
With us indeed. And His prints move on
He is now bloody from the merciless flogging.
Never have His prints been more profound,
As He makes His way along the streets, slogging
Toward Calvary’s torturous mound.
As He is mocked, He moves forward to complete
His father’s extreme salvation plan,
Whereby, we may be restored, after Adam’s retreat
From God’s perfect fellowship with man.
He is Immanuel: God with us,
With us indeed. And His Footprints Stop!
They stopped near of the top of Golgotha’s hill,
Where His feet are affixed to the beam,
By the soldiers that are ridiculing Him still,
As He’s dying, their souls to redeem.
He’s hanging there, flanked by two ordinary thieves,
Stripped bare and in humiliation.
One ridicules and rejects Him, the other believes,
And from Christ receives affiliation.
He is Immanuel: God with us,
With us indeed. The prints are gone,
but, the Prince moves on.
The time of His death draws near and from Him we hear
Seven times a dying statement.
But only one will become, by mankind, held so dear
For it’s the point of sins abatement.
“It is finished”, upon this truth our faith depends
And all history should be reckoned.
All other important events this one transcends
As they come in a very distant second.
He is Immanuel: God with us,
The Prince of Peace is at peace.
By ten of His chosen men He seems forsaken.
Judas is dead of his own accord
Only one was with Him when the earth was shaken
And Peter thrice has denied his Lord.
So, it fell to a fearful and secret convert,
Plus a man that came to Christ by night,
Working openly, side by side, in loving concert,
To bury His limp body that night.
The prints are now in
His hands and feet.
On the darkest of Saturdays, the sun shines bright
Outside of where the Son of God lies.
But, there’s no brightness for those that have seen His plight.
All hope has disappeared, they surmise.
Hell rejoices, as Satan dances His gig of victory
Over God and His heavenly host.
Oh! But, his perception is contradictory
To that of Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
The Prince of Peace is King of Kings
And Lord of Lords
The earth trembles a second time in just three days
The tomb’s sentries are doubly shaken,
As an angel rolls away the stone and displays,
To the world, that the tomb’s forsaken.
Word of this event soon spreads to Christ’s devoted friends.
Their greatest fears are exchanged for cheers,
Not, for the devil’s clan: their brief merriment ends,
With this dreadful news, to Satan’s ears.
HE HAS RISEN!
HE IS WITH US INDEED
From the time Christ’s feet press against Mary’s womb,
And she feels the Holy Child within her,
Till He appears to another Mary by His tomb
Demonstrating that He’s the winner,
We have followed His footprints through diverse places,
But He has changed: everything’s been changed.
You can see it!… Look at His followers’ faces.!
Their entire lives have been rearranged.
For He is Immanuel
And is with them for evermore!
Mary, Christ’s mother, rejoices and now understands
What she has long pondered in her heart.
Thomas believes when he sees the prints in Christ’s hands;
Hence removing all doubt on his part.
Peter realizes the Lord’s forgiveness, one morn
Over breakfast, cooked by Our King.
Christ breathed on the disciples and they were reborn,
Thus from this act His Church did spring.
The Church is Alive
He is with us indeed.
For forty days Christ stayed with His infant church,
Until the day of His ascension.
As He’d promised, He never left them in the lurch;
Void of His power’s extension.
So they waited as He said, without contention
In a Jerusalem upper room,
And received a greater spiritual dimension
To liberate a world of sin’s gloom.
Immanuel: God with us.
Not in Earthy Form … but
With us indeed.
