God's Skallywags

"For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world

that He even gave up His only begotten Son, so that whoever

believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."

John 3:16

The following poem brings to mind the humble admission of

guilt made by the broken, dying thief on the cross beside Jesus.

"Today, you will be with Me in Paradise"

The Thief On The Cross

The God of Scribes looked down and saw

The bitter band of seven,

Who had outraged His holy law

And lost their hope of Heaven:

Come Villon, petty thief and pimp,

And obscene Baudelaire,

And Byron with his lecher limp,

And Poe with starry stare.

And Wilde who lived his hell on earth,

And Burns, the bawdy bard,

And Francis Thompson, from his birth

Malevolently starred...

As a line of livid ghosts

They stared to Paradise,

The galaxy of Heaven's hosts

Looked down in soft surmise.

Said God: "You bastards of My love,

You are My chosen sons;

Come, I will set you high above

These merely holy ones.

Your sins you've paid in gall and grief,

So to these radiant skies,

Seducer, drunkard, dopester, thief,

Immortally arise.

I am your Father, fond and just,

And all your folly see;

Your bestiality and lust

I also know in Me.

You did the task I gave to you...

Arise and sit beside

My Son, the best Beloved, who

Was also crucified."

"My sacrifice, the sacrifice acceptable to God is

a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, broken down

with sorrow for sin and humbly and thoroughly penitent,

such, O God, You will not despise."

Psalm 51:17

Only God can truly see the heart and intention of man.

 Therefore we may be surprised who we will meet in Heaven someday!

"God's Skallywags"

Robert William Service

(1874-1958)

English-Canadian poet 

Known as "The Bard of the Yukon"

"The Thief On The Cross"

A film clip from the miniseries,

"Jesus Of Nazareth"

(1977)