China's Heart

steaming hotpot
perfumes the air
gleaming summer’s sun

countryside life
earthy and noble
unchanged by time

daily rhythms
a people linked
a proud culture

kids play
innocence of youth
their parents dream

new society
globalized and homogenized
what is lost?

generations leap
the Cultural Revolution
Facebook and Twitter

fish swim
the Yangtze river
strong and dynamic

return youth
to the fields
of amber wheat

find joy
in simple pleasures
laughter and song

a path
walked for millennia
follow it well

God’s creation
the beauty unfolds
let minds behold

before Communism
journeyed Apostle Paul
across China’s soil

preaching life
eternal in Christ
Han people followed

a struggle
modernism and materialism
twin evils abound

fear not
in China’s history
a seed planted

bearing fruit
sweeter than lychee
a liberating Gospel

dusk now
my ears delighted
by the erhu

drifting asleep
i will dream
of Jesus’s China

  — by Zachary Uram (c) 2011