By Victor Emmanuel Uwah
None is like Thee, my precious Lord.
I’ve sought on earth and up above,
But all creatures with one accord
Attest to Thine unchanging love.
Thou Lord hast been from endless days
When nothing yet had come to life,
But the effect of Thine own Rays
Took on some form and came alive.
My Lord, Who like a fire burns,
From that White Heat of nearness Thine
Every conscious soul fearfully turns
If not Beings that are Divine.
All else had then receded far
And stayed at boundaries most remote.
The urge for consciousness, like pray’r,
Arose in them whence they did float.
Thou heard their voice and saw their plight,
And out of boundless love for them,
My Lord Thou said, “Let there be Light” –
To Thee the word and deed are same.
And so to match Thy love with grace,
Thou didst from Thee a Part sever
And anchored at the outmost place,
That It should shine forth too from there.
This Part Thou named Imanuel,
That means to say “Thou art with us”.
It gave to us a home to dwell
And consciousness acquire thus.
This wondrous work of Creation
Attests of Thine own might and pow’r.
Thy kindness, care and perfection
Therein reveal themselves each hour.
Thy ways, my Lord, are wise and just:
Thou set up Laws to order keep
And see to it nothing be lost,
That what is sown be what to reap.
My Lord, Thou also gave to all
A free will we should exercise,
But we must give account of all
We do with it whate’er the price.
My Lord, we turned from Thee aside
And sought instead our ways to go
That we might here on earth abide –
No longer in Thy Spirit grow.
This way we followed was of death;
But in Thy grace and love again,
Thou sent another Part to earth
That our souls It might help regain.
Such patience, care and love that’s Thine
Are past what any man could know:
To Thee I now my life resign
That hence I may but good seeds sow.
To Thee all thanks and praises be –
My precious Lord, none is like Thee.
- Victor Emmanuel Uwah, Poems From Without, 1997