One Solitary Life...
He was born in an obscure village
the child of a peasant woman.
He grew up in still another village
where he worked in a carpenter shop
until he was thirty.
Then for three years
He was an itinerant preacher.
He never wrote a book.
He never held an office.
He never had a family or owned a house.
He didn't go to college.
He never visited a big city.
He never traveled two hundred miles
from the place where he was born.
He did none of the things
One usually associates with greatness
He had no credentials but himself
He was only thirty-three
when the tide of public opinion turned against him.
His friends ran away.
He was turned over to his enemies
and went through the mockery of a trial
He was nailed to a cross.
Between two thieves
While he was dying.
His executioners gambled for his clothing.
the only property he had on Earth
He was laid in a borrowed grave
through the pity of a friend.
Nineteen centuries have come and gone
and today he is the central figure of the
human race, and the leader of mankind's progress
all the armies that ever marched,
all the navies that ever sailed,
all the parliament that ever sat,
all the kings that ever reigned,
put together,
have not affected
the life of man on Earth
as much as that
One Solitary Life.