Greatness is not goodness.

The pyramids are a wonder of the world,
But one can only imagine the brick by brick
Brutality born on the backs of people
Who did not belong to themselves.

 Greatness is not goodness.

We’ve joined God in the heavens,
And gawked at the Great Wall of China from above.
Our walls go up. Then come tumbling down.
But God, God’s eye is on the sparrow.

Greatness is not goodness.

The skyscraper is as old a sight as Babel’s Tower,
But no one can skip the Colosseum when in Rome.
After all, its testimony to empire has stood the test of time,
And yet the echoes of martyrs outlast every foundation.

Greatness is not goodness.

We’ve turned brothers and sisters into cargo, efficiently.
We’ve exterminated nations, peoples, and children, effectively.
We’ve tortured creations of God, unapologetically.

We’ve created our own Acts of God
With fire raining from the heavens,
earth quaking,
the skylight darkening behind a bloom of clouds.

But greatness is not goodness,
At least not of the kind sung
Over all of creation at its genesis.
At least not of the kind sung
Over each child made in the Image of God.

It is very good, God sings.

Goodness was not greatness,
when they laid him in a manger.

Goodness was not greatness,
When he rode into Jerusalem
With no army at his back
and no arms to bear.

Goodness was not greatness
When he washed each grody toe
Of Judas, his disciple.

Goodness was not greatness,
When his friends left him,
When the soldiers mocked him,
When he was crowned with thorns.

God was not great as he gasped in weakness,
“Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”

It makes me stand in wonder.
For what are you yearning?
Do we want to be made great again?
Or do we dare ask for God’s blessing?