06-The Star (for Arthur C. Clarke)

A not very cheerful Christmas song I wrote for the RPM Holiday Challenge. Based on the classic Arthur C. Clarke science fiction story “The Star”. http://faculty.winthrop.edu/kosterj/engl510/star.htm

Light years out and an eternity back to visit a dead star
We found the vault where the people had laid
The relics of the lives they had made
They knew time was short and nowhere to run
And their time would end soon with the exploding sun

It was so long ago but just an instant
In the cosmic scheme
And why would a God who loves all
Use this star to call our world so distant?

Now I’ve read the plates and watched the tapes they left
I’ve made my report and worked it out
And I know there can be no doubt
The mystery is solved at last
Now my faith in God is shaken, so many lives were taken

Of all the stars in the sky
Why did these people have to die
So the light of their dying sun
Would shine over Bethlehem?