Over the past few months I have enjoyed writing some poems based on Bible characters/events.

To make a long story short…I am considering publishing  a children’s picture book of the following poem about Jonah. Caleb’s wife, Rachel, would be the illustrator. Would you take a few moments to give me some feedback from your thoughts…especially from a parent’s or grandparent’s perspective? Thanks…and I really look forward to hearing from you!

JONAH, by Craig Hughes

Can you imagine how it feels to be inside a whale
Surrounded by such slimy stuff and nauseating smell?

Yet that’s where Jonah found himself when running from the Lord.
He should have stayed and then obeyed with attitude restored.

It started when Jehovah gave this Jonah special word
To preach to folk of Ninevah a truth they hadn’t heard.

But in his bias he refused to carry out God’s plan
And sailed instead to Tarsus on a ship to foreign land.

Along the way, the Lord sent forth a wild and stormy sea.
The sailors were all terrified as terrified could be.

When Jonah said he was the cause of such horrific gale,
The sailors threw him overboard, then peace and calm prevailed.

And down, down, down ole Jonah sank to depths of total black,
When God prepared a mighty whale to have a Jonah snack.

Then with a single gulp the whale ingested Jonah in
And three long days of solitude in blubber did begin.

When Jonah had a change of heart and he could take no more,
The Lord sent forth the fish to throw him up on local shore.

Then off he went to Ninevah with energy restored
And started preaching everywhere the warnings of the Lord.

The people took his words to heart, repenting of their ways,
And begged that God would spare their lives throughout the coming days.

So God in His compassion did not wipe out any thing,
But blessed their true repentance from the pauper to the king.

But this is not the end of Jonah’s tale as one might think,
For with a rotten attitude his pride began to stink.

When Jonah saw that God had saved all people of the town,
Instead of great rejoicing, he thought God had let him down.

“I knew that this would happen”, Jonah said to God above,
“’cause from your great compassion you have chosen to show love.

“Instead of bringing swift destruction on this wicked city,
“You spared and even blessed them with your mercy and your pity.”

Then storming out of Ninevah, he sat beyond the wall,
To see if God would bring them any punishment at all.

And as he waited angrily to see what might be done
The Lord produced a vine to shade him from the blazing sun.

The vine made Jonah happy as he napped there with a yawn,
And rested all that day and night until the break of dawn.

Then God sent out a hungry worm to chew the plant away
which irritated Jonah as he bore the heat of day.

“What right have you to fume and fuss,” said God about the vine.
“Do you care more about yourself than people who are mine?”

The vine was a reminder of God’s ever faithful care,
That comes from His compassion even when we say, “Not fair!”

There’s much that we can truly learn from Jonah and his story,
But most of all we must obey our God in all His glory.