richards odes

Family

A party with the family is really lots of fun

It is a time to meet and greet and talk to everyone.

However, the cacophony when everybody talks

Is enough to make you wish you’d gone on quiet walks!

I know that they’re all happy and I’d really like to stay

But sometimes when my brain is tired I have to get away.

The blessing of this solitude when I’ve gone to my room

Is that I can sit quiet and pray away my gloom.

Oh, God I’d like to thank you for the family I hold dear

And thank you more especially that we meet just once a year!

I love them all most dearly and I pray they all succeed

And that they get the things they want as well as all they need.

Of course we have our troubles and, sometimes, even fight

But give us peace and harmony and let us see the light.

Families have always been the same throughout the years

Sharing their rejoicing, their sorrow and their tears!

Long ago it was the same when Mary was with child

Some would have supported and some would have been wild!

They sent her to the country out of harms way

To one of their relatives for an extended stay.

God had said to Mary, to prove what she’d been told.

Elizabeth would have a child though she was far too old!

She had had a word as well of Mary’s high esteem

That she carried the Messiah was told her in a dream.

As she espied her cousin approaching in the gloom

The baby boy she carried leapt within her womb.

Mary now was certain that her purpose was divine

For her cousin’s pregnancy was a clinching sign!

Joy now filled her boson and she sang her song of praise,

In words that have been cherished through each succeeding age.

Lord let me sing your praises for all that you have done

And for my well loved family, every single one!