Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

As  a small child I was led to believe that poor old Humpty Dumpty was an egg. I knew that if I were to put an egg on a wall and push it off, it would smash into pieces never to be whole again. So I. too, thought the story was about an egg.

My children loved this nursery rhyme, I even made a Humpty Dumpty birthday cake for my eldest daughter’s second birthday, and one also had a huge Humpty Dumpty toy. In the case of the cake, it wasn’t an egg sitting on the wall, but a plastic money box in the shape of an egg. I can’t remember what ever happened to it; I think perhaps it was filled with money, taken to the bank and cut open….poor Humpty Dumpty

My little granddaughter, Lily, is following in the family tradition; she cannot wait to sit on my lap for me to play out the actions of this rhyme whilst I sing the words. Before I can get to him falling down she throws herself backwards and screams with great delight squealing for more.

There are many versions of what or who Humpty Dumpty was. It has even been said that Richard the 3rd had a hunchback, which looked like an egg, and was referred to as Humpty Dumpty.

Humpty Dumpty also appears in the classic story, Alice in Wonderland.

The most logical version would have to be that Humpty Dumpty was a cannon used in the siege of Colchester during the English Civil war in 1648. The Rhyme below gives us an insight as to what happened.

In Sixteen Hundred and Forty-Eight
When England suffered the pains of state
The Roundheads lay siege to Colchester town
Where the king’s men still fought for the crown

There One-Eyed Thompson stood on the wall
A gunner of deadliest aim of all
From St. Mary’s Tower his cannon he fired
Humpty-Dumpty was its name

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

I often become so upset with all the hate, violence, and prejudice in the world that I sometimes just cannot think straight. One night just recently I could not sleep and was thinking about all these things when into my mind came my little 15 month old granddaughter. All she sees is love, she does not know the meaning of hate; everyone around her just loves her to pieces. All she wants is to be loved...she loves us unconditionally.

Humpty Dumpty was a piece of machinery; a cannon which sat on a tower wall and crumbled to the ground, never to be repaired, and it was true that the king’s men and their horses could not put it back together again….machinery back then is the same as machinery today, just as in the Avatar movie…machinery lost out, it died in the wars, they crumbled into pieces.

God made us in His image. We have not changed in all the centuries of our existence; nor has God. But over the centuries man continues to make new machinery, new warfare, trying to get it right. There is just nothing as the perfect piece of machinery.

All machinery /technology becomes outdated and turns into scrap, or lies rusting in rubbish tips.  We, on the other hand, have a choice to live forever: forever in eternity.

If you happened to see the movie Avatar, there was an unbelievable amount of warfare, enough to frighten anyone into thinking that they would die and the race would be wiped out…But they had faith, they had beliefs and they won.

I would like to add what my dear friend, who, after reading the rough copy of this post, wrote to me:

“we are living in a lost and fallen world – and as you mentioned Lily…Jesus said, “Unless you become as little children you will not inherit the kingdom of God.” We are not to be childish, of course, but child-like. It’s so important. As you say regarding faith, the whole idea behind Humpty Dumpty…the Holy Spirit was impressing this on me just last night; don’t despair, don’t lose faith, don’t give up...”