Where the People Walk Backwards

(December 3, 1999) -- As I was reading one morning, this story popped into my mind. I'm not sure if it is a song or a childrens' story, but, either way, it's an attempt to understand what happened when God became One of us on that long ago night in Bethlehem.

There's a land where the people all walk around backwards
They walk around backwards everywhere they go
They are bumped, they are bruised, they are scarred and broken
And why they walk around backwards, they don't know
They stumble and they stagger into one another
They trip and they tumble and they all fall down
There's a dangerous cliff that they cannot see
And a lake at the bottom where the people drown

It seems they've always walked around backwards
They were backwards born, they are backwards grown
The little children learn it from their mommas and their poppas
And they're reluctant to leave what they've always known
Some did worse, some did better
They all got by in their backward town
They all feared the cliff and the lake below
But the people would fall and the children would drown

Then a stranger came to town and, to them, He walked .. Backwards
Strangest sight you'd ever see
But He had no bumps, so scars, no bruises
And He said this is how you were meant to be
If you'll just follow me, if you'll just turn around
You will see where you're going, you will not fall down
And you'll have no fear of the cliff and the lake
And you'll not tumble in and you will now drown

But the people got afraid and the people got angry
When He said come follow, everyone refused
They all got together and they did away the stranger
And they still get broken and scarred and bruised
But some, it is said, heard the things He told them
You can recognize their footprints in the town
And they stand at the cliff with the words of the stranger
You'll do fine if you'll just turn around

There still is a land where the people walk backwards
They walk around backwards everywhere they go