How Many Kings?

Follow the star to a place unexpected
Would you believe after all we’ve projected
A child in a manger
Lowly and small, the weakest of all
Unlikeliest hero, wrapped in his mothers shawl
Just a child
Is this who we’ve waited for?

Cause how many kings, stepped down from their thrones?
How many lords have abandoned their homes?
How many greats have become the least for me?
How many gods have poured out their hearts
To romance a world that has torn all apart?
How many fathers gave up their sons for me?

Bringing our gifts for the newborn savior
All that we have whether costly or meek
Because we believe
Gold for his honor and frankincense for his pleasure
And myrrh for the cross he’ll suffer
Do you believe, is this who we’ve waited for?

How many kings, stepped down from their thrones?
How many lords have abandoned their homes?
How many greats have become the least for me?
How many Gods have poured out their hearts
To romance a world that has torn all apart?
How many fathers gave up their sons for me?
Only one did that for me

All for me
All for you
All for me
All for you


As I listened to this song, I thought of leadership. I thought of the role of a king, and about the kings that we read about in books. I am in the middle of the movie Troy. It tells of the famous legend of Achilles and the story of the Trojan horse. There are primarily two kings in the story, brothers, both kings in Greece. Menelaus and Agamemnon are their names. They are as ruthless, perverse, and bloodthirsty as they come. Absolute pictures of evil.

At one point in the movie, Menelaus is attempting to persuade Agamemnon to support him in a fight against Troy to take back Helen, his queen. Agamemnon mocks Menelaus by telling him, "I thought you wanted peace with Troy." Menelaus replies, "I should have listened to you." And Agamemnon tells him, "Peace is for the women and the weak. Empires are forged by war." At another point, Paris, the young prince of Troy who ran off with Helen, tells his father, King Priam, "Father, you are a great king, because you love your country so much. Every blade of grass, every grain of sand, every rock in the river... you love all of Troy."

As I contemplated these things, along with the lyrics of the song above, I pondered what it means to be a king, what true greatness is. And how these things pertain to the King of kings, the One who stepped down from His throne for you and for me, to give us the life we didn't deserve. True greatness is found in love. Kingliness is most evident in sacrifice. Power and force have nothing to do with these things.

Our God is an amazing God because He loves us so much. Every individual, with their unique characteristics, is special in His sight because that is how He made them. All the way down to the smallest, most insignificant little child in the back-country of the smallest, most insignificant country in the world... "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times." Jesus didn't enter this world a great ruler from a powerful dynasty. He was an unknown baby boy that didn't matter, born in a tiny city in a wimpy country.

Yet He became that one King. The King that did that for me.