Happy Birthday,

Happy Birthday to you,

Our 25th Million Australian.

We welcome you.

 

Celebrations are in order,

To commemorate your birth.

Champagne, cake, photos and news announcements,

Celebrating the national milestone that is your coming.

 

Will you grow to play footy,

Soccer, Rugby or League?

A plumber or teacher, inventor or doctor?

A child, a parent, friend and neighbour.

 

Life is not a number,

A statistic, figure or demograph.

But an individual, unique, and exquisitely made.

Image of God, bearing witness to all around.

 

We are excited that you are here,

And embrace you, our fellow Australian.

We yet glimpse at knowing,

This number long delayed.

It is not your fault.

The fault is ours,

That others were refused this gift given you.

 

Denied this birthday celebration,

On Islands not so far,

And the ocean’s dead,

And those torn from mothers wombs.

 

We Aussies are mercurial at length,

Like Melbourne, on a sunny, cold, windy, hot, stormy day.

A mordanting bush dance,

Leaving far too many aside.

 

But you remember,

Like those before you,

Those loved and those not,

Imago Dei,

Boy or girl, imprint of God,

Praise Him, for wonderful are His works.