My Favorite Poem

During my years at Dallas Baptist University, I was a watchcare member at Concord Baptist Church where Dr. E.K. Bailey was the then Senior Pastor. I worked in the tape ministry! For years Rev. Ralph D. West was and is one of my favorites. I had the opportunity to get a hold of two messages he preached when he was only 27-years of age entitled, 'What Has Christianity Done for You?' another entitled, 'God With Us'. This young minister, full of promise and potential, in one of these messages, shared a poem that has become a favorite of mine. The poem is originally writted by William Stidger, a 19th Century Christian author and poet, who I later found had several volumes of sermonic anecdotes and illustrations in print. I cherish these works even now in my library.

I SAW GOD WASH THE WORLD

I saw God wash the world last night

With His sweet showers on high;

And then when morning came

I saw him hang it out to dry.

He washed each slender blade of grass

And every trembling tree;

He flung his showers against the hills

And swept the rolling sea.

The white rose is a deeper white;

The red, a richer red

Since God washed every fragrant face

And put them all to bed.

There's not a bird, there's not a bee

That wings along the way,

But is a cleaner bird and bee

Than it was yesterday.

I saw God wash the world last night;

Ah, would He had washed me

As clean of all my dust and dirt

As that old white birch tree!